Toronto. The lowly family snapshot is often looked upon as a bit of kirsch by professionals but it serves to illustrate family history. The one used here was taken about 80 years ago when the youngest person shown was just too little to realize its value to the family at the time.
Without photography, the average person would have been unable to record family history. They say a picture is worth about 1,000 words. But one like this is priceless to the family and perhaps worthless to others.
Written words can capture family history if correctly dated and saved, but they simply cannot show events and people like a photo can! But unless the photo is dated and the location, event and people are listed (or known to any survivor) it is of no use to future family historians.
This snapshot brought to mind the song “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” by Otis Redding and Steve Cropper in 1967, just before the death of Redding in an airplane crash.