Photos of long-dead ancestors are some of the most cherished possessions of families around the world, especially genealogists. For many families, these heirlooms have been scattered across the country or around the world, and lost forever. Or, maybe not.

A number of collaborative websites have been around for several years that offer “found” and shared photos of named individuals, and even more “unidentified” ones. The goal, of course, is to reunite families with their old photos. These sites, and others like them that are popping up all the time, are well worth a look by anyone doing genealogy research.

One of them is AncientFaces.com, online since 1999. Three months ago, in May 2007, the site announced that its database contained over 40,000 freely available photos, over 5,000 additional family stories and treasured family recipes.

Also dating back to 1999, is FamilyOldPhotos.com, and while the site doesn’t mention how many photos it now holds, it does have some interesting special sections. You’ll find Civil War, Railroad, Fire Departments, Circus, and an option to search by state.

Another leading old photos website is DeadFred.com, online since 2001. Back then the site had more than 1,000 surnames representing 2,000+ individuals identified and added to the database. Six years later, DeadFred.com can boast of 14,100+ surnames, 71,000+ records, and 1,150+ reunions.

Here’s a list of some of the other old photos
websites:

http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/ancestors/

http://www.ancestorville.com/

http://www.fordnagle.com/

http://frontiervintagephotos.com/

http://www.recycledrelatives.com/

http://www.honoringourancestors.com/orphanphotos.html

http://portraits.geneanet.org/