Ive found a photo of my g-g-g-great grandfather online. Its on a "X-County Civil War Soldiers" genealogy website. I contacted the person who added it to confirm the identification. Is it rude to offer to buy the photo from them? Have yall found these people are willing to reunite the photos with relatives or do they have a hard time parting with them?
Perhaps you could just ask for a copy? I've never tried it (although I have "borrowed" electronic copies from other family trees on Ancestry) but I bet if you asked nicely you might at least get that far.
Yes -if they didn't want to sell, ask if they could send a good quality scan; that would let you print up a near-identical copy. I'd suggest a tif or tiff file rather than the compressed jpg; a tif is lossless compression and is great for photos and graphics.
Of course it sounds rude, but if people are doing it like volunteers - it should be free, but if it is kind of business.. When we go get notary for our own(!) Signature and pay for it - we don't think it is rude.
You might also be able to find or obtain a copy of the photo from another source. I searched civil war websites and found a National Park Service archive - they have much more than just civil war - and they have an image policy. If you have the name, you might search their database; you might be able to get information or copies of the service record: https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-soldiers.htm Service records: http://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/pre-ww-1-records.html They also have a lot of information about people, battles, and such that might be worth checking out: https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/soldiers-and-sailors-database.htm
Actually it was kind of joke, but I will try again: If the person who find picture of your g-g-g-great grandfather is asking money for picture, because it is his business: find pictures or information of other people and sale it. Of course you could say: Sorry, but it is picture of my g-g-g-great grandfather and it means I should get it free! Is it what you are talking about? Isn't it? OK, lets say that you own original painting of Picasso, but one day somebody will tell you: Hey! Give it me free, because Picasso is my g-g-g-great grandfather. I think it would be rude. But I know some people who like history and searching are doing it free (or as volunteers) and they are sharing information free and very happy that could help somebody. Well.... about the notary for signature (again was a joke), but anyway: When we need Notary of our signature and asked pay for this service, we don't complain that we should pay money to confirm our OWN signature, because we understand, that it is payment for service. @KingofThings You were right about my English. @SeaGoat Sorry, but I still think that your post should be like this: "I found picture of my g-g-g-great grandfather! I so appreciate person who found it and post online! Can you believe I paid just $20 (for example) for that picture? I am so glad that some people do this business and help us!" (And it is not joke already. Sorry, maybe it sounds rude.)
No, I said, "Is it rude to offer to buy the photo from them?" Meaning, I will pay money for it as I understand they probably have money in it. I wouldnt know what a fair offer would be for such a thing. I know some images are worth $100s to $1000s of dollars but hes not in uniform in the photo. What is posted is just from about chest up. I just found it today and wanted to know if it was kosher for people to do this.
@SeaGoat Please next time before read my posts just say: Ok. I know she will joke again with her "funny English".
I don't think it's rude at all. It will depend on whether the poster owns the actual photo, or whether they posted a scan of somebody else's photo. Also, if the person owns the photo their response to the offer will depend on their attachment to the photo, etc. This is only loosely related to your post, but... I recently bought a group of CDVs through eBay and only really wanted a couple of them. But they were inexpensive. A month or two later the seller wrote to me and said that a woman had contacted him because one of the photos was of her great-grandfather, and she wondered whether she could buy that photo from the person who bought the group (me). The seller said he would not disclose my identity to her, but he did pass along her email address. I was happy to just give her the photo. She and I have had some correspondence, as she is doing extensive research on this ancestor, who had an interesting life. Anyway, I wouldn't take payment for it. I do like to reunite photos with descendants when I can. And it's easy in cases where I don't have an attachment to the photo at all!
I got in contact with the man who posted it. He just pulled it from somewhere else. He said hes trying to recall. I can not find it anywhere else on google so idk where he would have pulled it from Ive joined a facebook ground for the county's genealogy members. Im hoping someone there can help
In the same vein, there's an interesting site on philatelic genealogy: tracing ancestors through envelopes. I was shocked a few years ago to find an envelope there my greatgrandmother had sent (without the letter, unfortunately), and had no problem with buying it from the dealer. Could hardly expect him to give it away. And it's a great way to discover precisely what place your ancestors came from. philgen.org
That is a very interesting site, khl889. It includes a searchable database. I haven't found any relatives yet, but will keep looking -- and have bookmarked it.
I found pictures of my husband's ancestors on Ancestry and just opened & saved them to my file. They came down in a different branch of the family. If I wanted a photo and found it on someone else's website and they weren't a descendant, I'd have no problem asking to purchase it.
