2013 - Volume #BFS, Issue #13, Page #23
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Find Your Family Farm In Old Aerial Photo Archive
See the people waving at the plane? This 1968 image was recently purchased by a customer who was able to find his family farm in 1968,1974 and 1978 He surprised his family members with a framed photograph of the farm in the years that were significant for each of them. The farm itself has been plowed to fields since the 1980’s. This makes the memories even more poignant, and a picture of what used to be there all the more precious.
At Vintage Aerial, this is what we do: we connect families to their histories, bringing memories and stories to life, preserving and sharing their pasts. Using our collection of 19 million photographs to make these connections makes every day a joy to go to work. The odds are good that Vintage Aerial can find an old aerial photo of your farm, or maybe a farm you grew up on, or a place that is special to you.
For five years, Vintage Aerial has been converting old film from the 1960s to 1990s into digital images that are viewable on the Internet. As a result, we now have about five million digital pictures available for viewing. And if we haven’t already converted the picture of your farm, we can do so if you’ll let us know the area of the country you’re interested in. On our web site, on the first page click on Discover Your Photos, and choose your state and county. Right away, you can know what years are available in your area. After this, entering an address, township, or nearest crossroads narrows down the collection to a few rolls in your immediate area. From there, Vintage’s researchers will work with our collection find the farm and the photos that show it.
A Vintage librarian will then call you and using the Internet go through a slideshow of photos with you to find the right one. Or we may find more than one that means something to you. “Often several photos were taken through the years of the same location, and customers like to purchase all of them for a collection to hang on the wall.” Fritz Byers, Vintage’s president, says. “The collection tells its own story of change and, taken together, the photographs create a rich set of memories.”
Vintage’s collection covers 41 states and reaches back to the early 1960s.
“We estimate that every photo of a farmstead is connected to about 30 people, spread over several generations,” Byers, says. “We are trying to reach the second, third and fourth generations.” With many of the farms gone, descendants are often interested in preserving that part of their family history.
“People get excited when they can see the farm at a time when it was still active,” he explains. “About 40 percent of the farms shown in our archives no longer exist. When our customers find a picture of a missing farm, especially one they grew up on, the result is powerful way to recapture their special past.”
Vintage Aerial sells the photos with various sizes, options and frames, starting at $199 up to $499 for a framed 20 by 30-in. print.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup,
Vintage Aerial, 2340 Detroit Ave,
Maumee, Ohio 43537 (ph 888-402-6901)
Email service@vintageaerial.com
Visit www.vintageaerial.com/farmshow



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2013 - Volume #BFS, Issue #13