Aron and Annie Lipschitz Russin Empire possibly St Peterburg

Hi Alison. What is your goal? Are you trying to identify the individuals in the photos? Have you already created a family tree? Do you have information about your great grandparents? Dates of birth, marriages, children, siblings, deaths?
Janet-Lee

Hi Alison, what are the names of the studios? Do they indicate that the photos were taken in St. Petersburg?

There is a person whose online name is Sherlock Cohn. She does photo genealogy. She might be able to provide some clues. You can google her name, and I think she has a Facebook page.

Hi Allison.....
If you have no idea who the people are...except possible family. The only thing you can get from the photos immediately would be to get translations of the photo studios (as Elena said)... which at least narrows down the city. I have thousands of people on my tree from my wife's side and mine. I started with boxes of photos a lot un-identifiable but as I slowly came across "distant relatives" I always ask if they have any olde family photos they can E-Mail me. I've gone on the "Litvak site" on Facebook and put up photos with a foreign language and people translated them. If you're only interested in your grandparents ...you could try "Jewish Gen" with the city & names of them and you might get a hit.

I see you have created a Profile on Geni, but have not yet even added your parents.
I would say the first thing you should do now is add profiles for your parents and grandparents, and any siblings for each of those that you know of.

If you do not want to build a tree on Geni, I suggest you post in one or more of the very helpful Facebook Groups.

Thanks so much. I have just started this.

Greetings Alison,

How exciting. I love old photographs! So a here are few tips I've learnt over the years.Scan and upload to a sharable link via Dropbox or Google drive(your preference),so you can Network with known and unknown family. Networking within your tree can help identify family members quickly. Also it perserves the state of the photos now and protecting them in case of the unknown.

Join Facebook groups targeted for location,year,photograph type or Studio, etc. The group offering via Facebook is endless...with a tons of experience and experts willing to help at no cost! If you have no idea thrm join general groups. It takes time to learn so enjoy the process. =)

There's also some application via Google Play or Apple Store to try out or using Goole,Bing search engines features for identifying photographs. Major search engines offer photo identification.Not for most photos but for some.
I've had success finding people blogging or talking about family and identified people this way. I have more ideas but I'm brain dead and need to wake up and drink my tea. Good luck and if I think of more I'll come back and give some suggestions.

Thank you. . Very helpful indeed. Will have to update mey skills for sure

Hi Alison,

It sounds like perhaps this photograph is what has sparked your 'genealogy fever.' Well, hold on!! And have fun!

I totally agree with Janet-Lee about coming up with a goal, and DEFINITELY start with what you know, which is starting to build a tree with your parents and all your aunts/uncles, then your grandparents, and all your g-aunts and uncles. You'll be surprised what you'll find in starting with the (comparatively) EASY stuff first.

Thank you. So tempting to do it the other way around because it's potentially more interestin!

Oh, Allison, I totally know it is! However, it will also become more frustrating, and less complete, by doing it backwards.

Make sure to create a research plan, starting with your grandparents. And log everything you search, including links to web pages. It really will make the process more thorough.

I have taken your advice. Many thanks

Hi Alison,
We are very distantly related via marriages. I am a native Russian speaker and I can translate for you whatever is written in Russian on your old photos. There are several groups related to Jewish genealogy on Facebook. FB groups such as "Old Jewish Photographs of The World Pre 1965" or "Tracing the Tribe - Jewish Genealogy on Facebook"

Thank you Victor. Yes. Very distantly related.I am on the Old Jewish Photograph Group.I have just joined Tracing the Tribe.Are you happy for to send me your email adress so that I can upload the backs of the photos.Is that allowed?
Alison

Hi Alison,
I sent you a personal message with my email.
Victor.

Thank you