In this session, we'll be looking at how photographs can help in ancestry research. And I'll be showing you a few photographs from my own family album to illustrate not only the kind of information that they can give you, but also how they can raise questions that need to be answered. Don't worry if you haven't had time to speak to your own family yet or find any photographs. Hopefully this session will motivate you to get on and do that, as they can be a source of great fascination and interest. If you have already spoken to your family and looked at some photographs, you may have found that they really spark off memories and stories and that they can be a real talking point for family members. So photographs are very useful to help relatives, particularly elderly ones.

Remember the past and get talking But also, photographs can be real starting points for your research. They can help you decide where you want to start with your research and perhaps try and find out about a particular ancestor whose face you may have only just seen. Let's have a look now at a few photographs, and see how useful each type of folk photograph can be.