Where to Find Images for your Genealogy Blog



Where to Find Images for Your Genealogy Blog  Find more genealogy blogs at FamilyTree.comWant to get some extra views on your genealogy blog? It helps if you include an image. Not only does this make your individual blog posts more visually interesting, it also makes your blogs more attractive on social media. Just take care that the images and photos you choose are ones that you have the legal right to use.

The most important thing regarding the images and photos you choose to put in your blog has to do with copyright. Before you use a photo, make sure that it has been released for use by the person who owns it. Here are some ideas on where to get images that are either copyright free or that have been released under creative commons:

The British Library
The British Library has a Flickr account that they have filled with over a million public domain illustrations and other images. The images range in time period and subject matter. Some include Restoration-era cartoons, early photographs from colonial explorers, art instillations, and photos from Burning Man festival. It is a treasure trove of images that you can put into your blog!

The images are gathered by a Mechanical Curator that randomly pulls “images and curiosities” from the 65,000 books in the digitized collection of the British Library. The books are from the 17th, 18th, and 19th century. All the images it selects can be used in blogs. Follow the Mechanical Curator bot @MechCuratorBot on Twitter to see newly selected images every hour.

Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons is another resource that can be used by bloggers who are seeking images for their blog. Type some words, or the name of a public official, into the search box. It will bring up all the images that relate to what you typed.

Pick an image and scroll down to see the licensing information. Many images of public officials have been released into the public domain. Often, it is because the image was created by the United States government. Sometimes, an individual photographer will choose to release that particular image into the public domain. If it doesn’t say that the image is released into public domain – don’t use it!

Getty Images
Getty Images has more than 50 million images that are legal and free for people to use in their blogs. The images are embed-able, and you can easily get the link for the image you select. Copy and paste the code for the image into your website or blog. It is also possible to embed or share a link to a photo on a social media site.

Image by The British Library on Flickr.

Related Article at FamilyTree.com:

* Are You Sure You Can Use That Photo?

* Copyright Laws and Genealogical Data

* To Use or Not To Use

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