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With approximately 5.2 million photographs dating from the 19th century on, the National Library of Ireland’s Photographic Archive is thought of as a sort of national family album. But time dulls historical memory, and a lot of information about the people captured in those images has been forgotten.

So back in 2011, the library (NLI) joined Flickr Commons, a part of the online photo-sharing community that encourages public photo collections to post their archives. The library then asked users to help track down the stories behind the faces and places in its collection.