Detective work: dating a photo with no date on it
Okay. You've got your photos scanned now, so let's talk about the part nobody warns you about: half of them have no date on the back, and the person who could tell you is gone, or ninety-one and tired of being asked.
This is real detective work. Slower than editing. I actually like this part, which surprises people.
Start with what's written down, even if it's wrong
Check the back of the photo first. Sometimes there's a date, sometimes there's a name, sometimes there's nothing but a photo studio's stamp in the corner. Write down anything you find, even a partial. A stamped year is gold. A first name with no context is still worth keeping.
If it was in an album, look at what's next to it. Albums usually go in some kind of order, even a bad one. A mystery photo between two photos from 1978 is probably 1978, or close.
Read the clothes and the haircuts
This sounds silly until you try it. Clothing styles, especially kids' clothes, shift fast, every few years. Haircuts too. If you've got other photos from your family with dates on them, line up the mystery photo next to those and compare. A kid's age in a dated photo can help you bracket an undated one — if he's six here in 1985, and he looks about the same age over here, that's 1985-ish too.
Cars, wallpaper, and other things people don't think to check
Cars in the background are useful because they got redesigned on a schedule and people mostly drove them for a few years before trading in. If you can make out a model, you can often narrow a decade.
Here's the one I'm actually proud of. My grandmother's photos had zero dates on any of them. None. But I had home movies from the same house, and I recognized a wallpaper pattern in the background of one photo that also showed up in a video I'd already dated. That told me which house they were living in, which told me the years they lived there, which got me from "no idea" to a four-year window. Nobody else in my family cared even a little. I was thrilled. That's the job, honestly — small matches like that, one at a time.
Furniture works the same way. So do wall calendars if you can zoom in enough to read a month.
Ask people, but ask specific questions
"Do you know when this was taken?" gets you a shrug most of the time. Better questions:
- "Whose house is this?"
- "How old do you think you are here?"
- "Was this before or after your sister was born?"
Specific questions jog specific memories. And here's the thing — people are often wrong with confidence. I once told Teresa she had the wrong sister identified in a photo she was sure about. She was certain. I checked against another photo where the sister was named, and I was right. It didn't feel great correcting her, she'd known this photo her whole life and I hadn't. But the caption would've been wrong forever if I hadn't said something. So say something. Gently, but say it.
Write down your reasoning, not just your guess
When you land on a date, or even a range, write down why. "Approx. 1985, based on car in background and kids' apparent ages" is way more useful to whoever finds this box next than just "1985" with no explanation. You might be wrong. The next person deserves to know how you got there so they can check your work, the same way I checked Teresa's.
This is also just good practice for the video itself. A caption that says "Grandma's kitchen, mid-1980s" reads as trustworthy. One that says "1985" with total confidence and no backup can look silly if someone later proves it was 1987.
A gap I'll admit to
I've got a box of my own kids' baby videos I still haven't touched. Three years now. I know exactly how to do all of this — dating, organizing, backing up — and I still haven't started on my own family's stuff. So if you're sitting here feeling behind on your own box, I'm not going to pretend that's unusual or that I'm somehow ahead of you on this. Starting is the hard part even when you know the steps cold.
A caution worth saying plainly
Don't write directly on the back of an original photo with a ballpack pen if you can help it — the ink can bleed through over decades and damage the photo, especially with humidity. Use a soft pencil, or better, write your notes on an acid-free sticky label, or just keep a separate log (paper or digital) that says which photo is which. I keep mine in the same journal where I log my export settings and my bread temps. Not glamorous. Works.
Before next time: Pick three undated photos from your pile and try to get each one to at least a five-year range, using anything we talked about today. Bring your best guess and your reasoning — we'll compare notes.