Family Memorabilia

[eileenb]

I have very little family ephemera/photos etc. but what I do have I intended to put in an album. The problem I am having is the format.

Do I enter things by surname, date, type? Keep everything for one family member together or what? Whichever way I look at it I think I will cause myself ongoing problems as I may pick up something in the future that I haven't left room for. I have come to the conclusion that the best way is to bung it all in there and just make sure everything is labelled adequately. It could be more interesting anyway.

Ideas or experiences will be most welcome

[Carmy]

I've been thinking of the same thing. Right now I'm thinking I'll start with the youngest member of the family and then go back to his parents, then to my family and his grandad's family, and so on. Might change my mind when I get around to doing it.

[Browneyes]

Hi,

One way of dealing with it is to imagine yourself looking at someone else's album. Would you prefer to see how people and families changed over time, to see different things connected with one topic or a particular branch of the family? The old fashioned scrapbook idea is good. I always think that an album is like a storybook in itself.

You can get albums that have loose leaves and pockets etc so if you need to add or rearrange the contents it's fairly easy to do so.

Of course if it's purely an album that acts as a file for your research you might find it helps to stick to a chronological or alphabetical system and/or simply number each item and each page and build a searchable index right from the beginning. Hard work but it will save you time and effort later on.

In any case the key is to enjoy the experience isn't it?

[JohnF]

I am very interested in what you kind people decide, for my Daughter in Australia has given me a superb scanner whilst asking me to digitise the last 100 years of family photos!
I may adopt a scheme like I use for the worlds pop songs 1800 to present - IF I can get it working for photos - Kodak Brownie, Kodachrome 35 mil, Marriage Albums, Instant Photos, Digi-cams and all!
John

[Browneyes]

I am very interested in what you kind people decide, for my Daughter in Australia has given me a superb scanner whilst asking me to digitise the last 100 years of family photos!
I may adopt a scheme like I use for the worlds pop songs 1800 to present - IF I can get it working for photos - Kodak Brownie, Kodachrome 35 mil, Marriage Albums, Instant Photos, Digi-cams and all!
John

A mammoth task I should think but interesting.

I still have all our photos in a box at the moment. I have photo albums and scrapbooks waiting to be filled. I'm not too sure what to do with old letters though as the majority of them are written on both sides so I would be interested to know how people keep them. I also have quite a few short company letters sent to my Dad between 1937 and the 1950s. The contents of all but three of the letters are similar - he was requesting catalogues from them - but I believe many of those companies might have closed down now. The majority of them were sent during WWII. I'm hoping to find a little information on each company.

[JohnF]

Hi Browneyes
Yes it is nice to IMAGINE in future lovingly caressing old photos and recalling happy times!
Paper beats computers hands down!
But with a computer the album can be made DYNANIC:-
Click on anything on the screen and more detail appears.
Or a menu offering you which WAY you would like the pictures presented, sequenced etc etc or which TYPE of picture or by place, person, photographer, date or subject.
The limit is your imagination and the SAME data can be presented thousands of ways - no multiple entry required - and thus please ALL those totally imaginary folk anxious to view it deep in the future!

And for the tangible photo lovers, here is a button called PRINT
And best of all, no need to remember which shelf in whichj room that wretched album is on! (OR WHICH BOX TO LOOK FOR THAT might HAVE THAT PHOTO IN IT)
{ ;<) ]

[Browneyes]

Sounds good to me John but I recently realised how keeping alot of photos on my pc slows it down. Presumably you'd need a pc with plenty of memory. I also realised that storing too many old emails slows it down too - I was astonished at how many images and attachments were stored through them and how important it is to 'spring clean' every so often.

[Ladkyis]

As a scrap booking family historian I have been gradually making 12" x 12" pages about my ancestors. I have three children and I have no idea how they will divide up these albums when I am gone. I have suggested that they should each have them for four months of the year, at least that way they will meet one another at least three times a year.

The one thing I will say is that all papers and glues and inks should be acid and ligning free to ensure the safety of the photographs. With scrap booking being such a huge hobby all over the world right now it is easy to get the right stuff - and not that expensive either.

With letters that are written on both sides of the page I either scan them and put the copies into the album and then keep the original in the folder with all the certificates or I just put an acid/pvc free polypocket into the album with the letter in it so that we can see both sides without having to touch the paper too often.

I always feel that we get too hung up about preserving the artifact and forget that to be able to touch a page where your great grandma wrote is just unbelievably emotional and that is a part of the history too. I make quilts for just that reason.

[DBCoup]

A year or two ago I discovered a "cousin" (5th and some number of removeds) living in England. She had no idea that our branch of the family even existed.
I decided to digitise a hundred or so photos of her new extension to the family and put them on a CD. I also created thumbnails and wrote an html index to them (identifying the people in the photographs). I kept them random as that is how I got them, and it was more fun to scan through the thumbnails and pick the ones you wanted a better look at (higher resolution).

The point here is there is no one "right" way to present your photographs. The key is to share them. To me photographs are like gold. Imagine then how I regard a portrait of my ancestor who died in 1756!!! Not that I have the original ;)
daryl

[Hugh Thompson]

At the moment I'm putting together two photo albums, one for each side of the family starting at the oldest and working forward through time giving them ascending numbers and general information, so that I can also make them into slide shows on DVD, that way the family can see the earliest photos first and it will let them add more of their own photos as their families grow, also as there is so far about 300 old photos in my collection, and a lot of family members to send them to, the cost of even using my own printer to reproduce that many photos would send me broke.
Hugh.:)

[eileenb]

I hadn't thought of merging the bmd certs into the album. At the moment, they are stored separately - in acid free etc. pockets of course but I will certainly give some thought to that one.

Now I have the scanner, I have loaded what I can onto the computer. However, even after all these years doing the family history, I still get a headache trying to decide if a member of the female line, when she marries, should be filed under her maiden name or not. I am forever moving things about and changing my mind but on the computer they can be moved around.

All of your suggestions are very good and I hadn't thought of making my own pockets to hold any bulkier items.

At the end of the day I think I will just do it to please me and as long as everything is labelled properly, then inerested future generations can figure things out for themselves.

Thank you for the feedback. It's given me plenty to think about.

[JohnF]

Now you have the scanner it can ALL be referenced on the computer in MANY flexible ways.
Mary (Aunt Freda) Josephene Williams nee Dragle can be indexed under all those names and everywhere she lived and all she ever did or knew.
Without taking up any space - or having to remember where you put it!
Use memory sticks - a 16 GB stick will hold a few thousand pictures.
Do not use cd. That format is dying and for your descendants it will be like handing them an Edison Phonograph cylinder and saying "It is all on there"
Be sure to tell them to upgrade to each new format every ten years (fortunately this can be done without any loss of fidelity)
Above all have FUN doing whatever you decide to do.
John

[kitca]

hi, ive been scrapbooking for years. doing the family history. i dont have photos for many of the family, but i do go online and google information on what i do know about these family members. then i add photos of the towns or buildings where they lived, or maps, anything of interest that is tied to them.

as to the original question, if you make your book in scrapbook style and use the paper protectors then you can allways just add in a page or two with no problem.

i have a spiral bound book on the family that was given to me and i found more information on one of the people. i typed it all out and just paperclipped it in at the proper place in the book. i dont think it is as important as to how it looks, just that the information is there for anyone in the future.

oh, about the family scrapbooks that you dont know how to divide up. have you ever thought of photocoping them. a 12 x 12 page copies very nicely into 8 x 8 on the color lazer copier. i know that it isnt the same, but it is a nice way to share your work.

[eileenb]

Thak you everyone for the tips. I will try out a few of the ideas and see how we go.

[annej]

Hi everybody,
What I've done with my families, is to keep each family in a separate colour ring file. I print out the family tree than try to add photos for the families and has I use loose leaf, I can add to as and when.I also have with each folder the same colour envelpoe file, with *bits* to be sorted out, newspaper cuttings etc.
The only trouble with this system is that my Family Tree maker produces the oldest first, so when my grandchildren are looking at them they need to start at the back.
I also need a three bedroomed house to myself!! and a new anorak!!

Hope this helps
Annej