HistoryPin is a great idea. A global project which enables you to attach photographs and memories to a global map. A fantastic resource for family researchers or novelists, like me. Like Pinterest, but specifically for places.
There are some fascinating subjects which I will re-visit for research; I particularly liked ‘Remember How We Used To…’ Photographs of how we kept warm, played, worked, cooked and cleaned, celebrated and worked. Another useful function is searching by location. Ignoring Gravity is set around Wimbledon, Richmond [below], London Docklands and Battersea. Searching Wimbledon brings up a photo of the Blitz in 1941, the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in 1962, a street party in Putney in 1989, and carriage cleaners at Wimbledon Traincare Depot in 1916. A search for Battersea is less populated, though there is a great black and white photograph of a boy and girl – siblings perhaps – standing outside a house on Winstanley Road in 1951-3.
In conclusion, this is a work in progress and geographical coverage is not consistent. But it is worth consulting if you are researching a specific location. All uploaded photographs are pinned to a specific place, and are shown on a street map so it is easy to find other entries. Photographs are uploaded by individuals and organizations so there is a wonderful mixture of family snaps and professional.
This post was inspired by the article ’50 family history websites to watch in 2015’ in the January 2015 issue of the UK’s Who Do You Think You Are? magazine.
For more articles about researching family records, try:-
The paternity question
Films bring history to life
Did your relative train as an apprentice?
I have used History Pin while researching Ignoring Gravity and Connectedness, the first two books in the ‘Identity Detective’ series of adoption mysteries, and I’m using it again while writing the third book, Sweet Joy. This time I’m plotting London during the Blitz and how a baby was abandoned in a bombed house.
BUY THE BOOK
And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
How History Pin puts your #adoptionreunion research on a map https://wp.me/paZ3MX-56 via #AdoptionStoriesBlog
Adoption Stories 