How can I figure out the date a picture that was taken years ago?

This question was posed to me by one of our readers.

Here are some of the different tricks to keep the information straight.

1. Look at your pictures, many of them have dates on them. Now if you print off your own pictures you might not have that.
2. Look for signs or other objects in your pictures that will tell you where they were taken and perhaps that will give you a date line. Like a vacation, family reunion etc.
3. The age of the people in the photos will help to date them. Such as a school function, sports activity etc.
4. If they are really old photos that are people who are long since gone, you might want to seek the help of elderly people in your family or try this website, it had some interesting help to give you an approximate date: http://www.cartes.freeuk.com/time/date.htm
5. Unfortunately if you don't have the exact date somewhere on the photo, and you can't remember the time line, you will only be able to approximate the date. Nothing wrong with putting on your layout August of 2007 or just 2007 etc. It at least gives it a time line.

Remember to journal about the surrounding in your back ground. Look it over and perhaps there is something you can tell about the day the photo was taken, even if you can't remember the exact date. Remember we love the story.

If you are in a hurry and scrapbooking. A tip that I use a lot for keeping the date, is to write up a quick post it note about the page with the date and then slap it on the page until I have the time to get to journaling about it. At least this way its not lost and I don't have to rely on my memory to keep the date handy.

Hopefully these tips will help out a little bit of trying to get these photos dates or at least in a sequence.

Remember a little journaling is definately better than none!

Article by:

Debbie Ruggles