MyHeritage launches global initiative: “Treasure Family Photos”

We’re delighted to announce the launch of our global “Treasure Family Photos” initiative to help you uncover new information about your family history through photos and preserve them online.

August marks the start of our ongoing campaign, which will offer exciting activities and competitions. Read on for details.

Photos can unlock clues to your past. You can learn more about the people who appear in the photos and discover relatives you might not have known. Yet these important treasures are highly perishable. We all know that our old photos can be taken from us by such disasters as floods and fires. It’s time to dig out that old box of photos and get them online, so that you can share them with your family, learn more about them, and keep them safe for future generations.

Here’s more information about the initiative and how you can participate.

The “Treasure Family Photos” campaign website

Visit our “Treasure Family Photos” campaign website which is packed full of tips for finding the hidden clues in your photographs, suggestions on how to preserve them, the importance of photos for family history and creative ideas for fun photo activities to do with the kids.

Search the collection for free

Since going live in 2005, MyHeritage users from around the world have contributed and shared family photos on the site, creating the world’s largest international collection of old family photos. The collection includes around 200 million family photos, some dating back to the 1840s. Photos that were shared publicly are searchable by name, date, location and keywords in our digital archive SuperSearch and as part of the campaign, for the month of August, you can search this collection for free.

Preserve family legacies with double the storage!

Don’t risk losing these precious family treasures. Family photos capture the essence of a person or a place and are the windows to our past. Search your attic, shoeboxes and family albums to find old photos and upload them onto your family tree.

Did you find a photo with a family member you don’t recognize? Ask your relatives and they may be able to put a name to a face.

A family tree blossoms with photos. By scanning and uploading family photos to your family tree, you’ll bring your family history to life and be able to share and enjoy those treasured family memories with relatives.

To help you create a personal, online photo collection that you can upload to your family tree at MyHeritage, we have permanently doubled the amount of free storage for users at no cost.

With an online family site, scan, upload, tag and share them online with relatives who can help identify people in your family tree whom you may not know.

A family tree blossoms with photos that capture the essence of your family history (Click to zoom)

Free Webinar with Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective

We’re also excited to have The Photo Detective Maureen Taylor, a world-class expert in photo analysis as the spokeswoman of our global “Treasure Family Photos” awareness campaign. She’ll be providing many creative tips and tricks to understand and preserve your photos. In addition, please register for our free webinar with Maureen on August 21 at 2.00pm EDT.

Here’s a short video with Maureen, about why family photos are so important, and what you can learn from them:

Competition: Free Photo Consultation with Maureen Taylor

Want to know more about that old family photograph? Unsure who those people are next to your grandparents? Each week, one lucky winner will have the chance to join Maureen for a free photo consultation session. You’ll be able to show Maureen your photos and learn more about them. A photo curator, genealogist and preservation expert, she’ll help you uncover the history behind your pictures and discover more about your ancestors.

To enter: In last week’s competition, we wanted to find out who has the oldest family photo. This week, we want to see your photos with the largest number of family members. Simply email us a copy of  your family photo, and the one with the largest amount of family members in the photo will win an analysis session with Maureen.

Send your photos with the subject “Largest Family Photo” to stories@myheritage.com by August 22 and include the date/year that it was taken, and the winner will be announced next week. Entries are subject to photo competition terms and conditions detailed below*. The consultation will take place via Google Hangout and the competition is open to all.

Good luck!
The MyHeritage team

*Photo competition: Do not send photos that you do not own the rights to or those for which you do not have permission to use. MyHeritage is not responsible for photos that may be transferred without consent. The competition is open to all. Any photo received by MyHeritage for this competition may be used by MyHeritage on social media channels and for other marketing purposes now and in the future.