If you own unidentified old photos, missed Lisa Louise Cooke’s video, How to Use Google Chrome to Identify Old Photos for Genealogy and Family History, when it first appeared a couple of years ago, and have four minutes to spare, you should take a look at the step-by-step instructions. It is just as useful today as it was in 2016.
In the description, Ms. Cooke writes, “By learning how to use Google Images, you may be able to finally identify some of those old pictures you have stuffed around the house! This technique works especially well for identifying locations, maps, and high profile buildings.”
There are a number of other instructional videos on her YouTube channel, Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems.
Google Chrome for translating
As for Google Chrome, it is a free browser that also translates web pages and online newspaper articles from English to French with just a right click of the mouse.
If you are more comfortable using Firefox or Internet Explorer, continue using them, but upload Google Chrome for the times you want to translate or identify photos. It’s free.
I keep both Google Chrome and Firefox on my tool bar, and switch between the two when I encounter problems. For example, if a website seems to be acting up, I switch to the other browser, usually solving the problem. The other day, Chrome wouldn’t play videos that had been posted on social media, but Firefox would. Other days, the reverse sometimes happens.
Is this different from google images that’s available at google.com? I use that and firefox. BUT it won’t identify your family photos for you unless someone has put them on line AND identified them. It may match a photo someone else has that they can’t identify. OR you might not get any hits at all. It’s in the same thought process as doing a DNA test will tell you who your ancestors were. There’s more work to it than that.