It is best to capture as much information as possible when you can. That’s what has been done with the reverse of this 1950s-era photograph used to illustrate this post.
Not long after I started my genealogy research, I went through some of my grandma’s photographs with her and wrote on the back of many of them. The identification was not done by me, but it was my handwriting that appears on the back. I need to track how the identification was made–so someone later who may see the photo knows.
How much credence we give to someone identifying people in a photograph hinges on who the identifier is and their perceived knowledge of the information. My grandmother was the sister, sister-in-law, or aunt of all the adults pictured in the photograph. She would have known who they were. I certainly did not. I could tell who three of the women were, but the other two I did not remember at all.
Tracking the identifier and the writer is always advised.
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