06 May 2012

Is It Worth It?

You have boxes. Everywhere. They over run the closets, office space, basements, attics, garages. Admit it: you have a historic photo problem.

So do I. My parents have decided to give me everything they had now, before they were too old to remember who everybody was. As much as I appreciate that, the storage capacity is, well, hitting capacity. We are over run with old photos. It's a treasure, a joy.

It's a pile of stuff I just cannot seem to get a grasp on.

This morning I was discussing with another collaborator the best ways to preserve those photos, to protect them, to separate them from glass and frames they've been in for 100 years or more. He asked the question, "is it worth it?" Is the photo itself worth the effort? Do you have another photo that would be easier to work with that is similar? Is there a way to get the information from the image without risking any damage?

I know with 100% certainty, without even looking, that I have duplicates upon duplicates of images. This thought is along the same lines; do I really need seventeen copies of the same photo?

They have historical value, yes. Are they doing anybody any good sitting in a box in my closet? No.

There are some reasonable management options here, for all of us to get our chaos under control.

  1. Go through all of your collection and gather the duplicates. Send them to like minded relatives around the country or the world, all labeled, of course, with a letter of introduction. It doesn't hurt to have them spread out; in fact, it helps protect them to ensure they will last through the ages (if your collection gets destroyed, they won't all get destroyed.)
  2. Scan, scan, scan. Or, take pictures. Whichever system you prefer, just make sure everything gets into a digital file. Remember though, you have to keep up with technology. CD's don't last forever. The cloud does have failures. Recopy everything to the newest latest and greatest. How many home videos were taken in the 80's and 90's that are sitting around on essentially useless VHS tapes? 
  3. Scale back. I recently found a photo of a section of grass. That was it. It was older, probably from the '30s, but it was some grass and a bit of sky. It looked like an error photo, equivalent to the "pocket dial" of today. Since it had absolutely zero worth to my research or to my family, it got tossed. Yep, I said it. I threw it away. It didn't have any writing on it, had no people or identifiable landmarks in the image. It was worthless. There is no shame in recognizing this waste and dealing with it.
  4. Go through what's left. Label it all, do as a complete job as possible: names, dates, locations. Some of my photos have full paragraphs with what I know about the circumstances surrounding the image. 
Now, stop and take a deep breath. 

Let's step back. You've dealt with the duplicates, gotten rid of the garbage, narrowed down your collection to what is, hopefully, a much more manageable size. Make sure that you have each photo attached to the appropriate person in your genealogy software program. I have been amazed at how many people seem to forget this. They think that they've already done it, or they get so excited about sharing the images they have discovered, or rediscovered, along the way, that they simply overlook this important step. Remember those like minded cousins around the globe? Now is the time to do a copy of your database and send that around, too. My parents have copies going back a decade in their safe deposit box. On the other side of the state. They are not the only ones. Overkill? Maybe. But if I lose everything in a house fire, I will not lose my research or my family history. 

Now you get to start looking for archival quality family albums, storage boxes and other safe storage options. 

It is a lot of work, I'm not going to ever say otherwise. But once you've done it, the rewards will be substantial, and as you gain more in your collection, it will be that much easier to keep up or to continue to identify those nagging duplicates. 

So keep on that pile, but remember to ask yourself: Is it worth it? 

24 comments:

  1. Great post Jen. I've been struggling with this for years now. It's not just the genealogy photos - which are so critical - but it is just our plain old family photos as well.

    Bravo on being able to throw out an obviously useless photo. I think if I could just start with that one step, I'd be on the path to conquering the closets full to bursting.

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    1. Thank you, Rorey! You get to that point of the project being so consuming... its so important, its just not organized. I decided it was time to start doing something about it. I appreciate your comments. ~ Jen

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    1. Thank you so much Marian! I very much appreciate your support. Have a great day! ~ Jen

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  3. One thing I meant to include: you can also send those duplicate images to the appropriate historical society or library! They are always looking to expand their collections, also!

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  4. Awesome post Jen! My husband's family has learned firsthand how important it is to have copies of important genealogical data somewhere other than on one computer. A house fire destroyed my mother-in-law's computer a few years ago and the data was not recoverable. There went her genealogy database!

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    1. Wow, Jana, that's quite a story! A good lesson to be learned for all of us! (and so sad at the same time...) Thanks for posting!

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  5. Great post, and important information, too. I have always had a hard time tossing those pictures that are of such poor quality they aren't any good anyway. After all, someone paid for that photo! But if you can't use it, why keep it!

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    1. That's exactly it! In the same day, I found an entire series of blurry, unusable photos. Some I kept to see if we could make anything from it, some were again, just tossed. I think my uber-organized grandmother (now deceased) would have appreciated my practical frame of mind.

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  6. This was an excellent post. Sometimes when you're overwhelmed by a task it helps to have someone tell you "first do this, next do that".

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    1. Thank you so much, Nancy! I really appreciate that. It can be very disheartening to work on something like that, and even with best intentions, it can be even more difficult to stay motivated. Thank you for commenting!

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  7. I've been scanning family photos for years now! I put them up on Flickr so my family members and I can look at them anywhere and they're backed up online. Flickr preserves the original size of the file. It's an easy enough way to manage them - I tag each photo with the initials of the people in it and Flickr allows you to look at a list of all your own tags. There's an option to put in the exact or approximate date the photo was taken if you know, and also the location. You can organize them into collections and albums. I've even gotten messages from newly-discovered relatives who found a photo of an ancestor. The only potential roadblock is that after a certain number of images, you have to pay for a pro membership ($25/year) but I've found it to be worth the money. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/60027918@N02/collections/72157627984668472/)

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    1. Another great suggestion, Sandi, thank you! Remember though, it is possible for services like Flickr to fail or have issues that may result in lost data. I would strongly suggest at least one other back up of all of those precious images. (Don't get me wrong, I love Flickr, too.)

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  8. It is such a problem! My family distributed photos amongst each other after our parents died but somehow they keep coming back to me. Cousins will send me their stash of photos, so many times I end up with 5 or 6 of the same photo it seems. My organizational skills are somewhat lacking unfortunately. My brother put family photos/slides onto CD for us, and even there we have many duplicatations. I do scan and post pertinent family portraits to my tree and have found quite a few from other trees too--so that part is going well. Right now I am mailing an original photo/portrait (c 1870) to the great grandson of the subject--we just made a connection this weekend!

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    1. Dana, how exciting! What a great connection, and so great that you had something you could share with them. Thank you so much for reading and commenting. ~ Jen

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  9. Hello All! I've had so many great comments today, and so many suggestions, that I created a topic in the In-Depth Genealogist Forums to continue the conversation! Check it out! http://www.theindepthgenealogist.com/?page_id=120&vasthtmlaction=viewtopic&t=56.0

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  10. "Do I really need seventeen copies of the same photo?"

    Ohmigosh, NO! No way do you need 17 copies of anything. I am adamant about the need to purge collections: http://practicalarchivist.com/how-to-organize-photos-shocking-advice/

    Jen, your idea of sharing unwanted photos is right on -- what a great way to reach out to genealogy cousins and start on the right foot.

    The only thing I'd add to your advice is that DeadFred.com will take any vintage photographs you don't want, even unidentified so-called orphans.

    Great post, and keep up the good work as Family Archivist! -sj

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    1. Thank you Sally, and yes, I always seem to forget DeadFred.com. I use it all the time, but they never end up in my posts. I'll have to work on that. Thank you so much for the comments and for reading! ~ Jen

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  11. Great post Jen! When I do my community talks on photo organizing, I recommend having several backups, including an external and a cloud storage option. Its really important that the cloud storage option stores in original resolution though...I've heard too many stories of computer crashes where when the person went to retrieve their files and only got back thumbnails! Right there is a good reason to have another backup! But the printed photo is really your best backup, because its not subject to computer crashes or technical obsolescence. That said though, I completely agree with you on getting rid of pictures. Sometimes its hard to throw a photo away but if there is no purpose in keeping it, then its just adding to the clutter!

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    1. Thanks, Michelle! Just had an interesting conversation about printed photos vs digital copies, and which was better when it came to preserving the image. A post for another time, I suppose.
      Clutter be gone!
      Thanks for reading, ~ Jen

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  12. Good reminders, Jen. I have found organization to be a challenge and have 2 suggestions: Name each digital pic with year followed by date, then subject (an easy sort tool); and make files by marriage, ie. my children are with me until they marry and start a new folder. Also the actual photos are sorted into archival photo boxes by date if known, or next by person if known, or by location last. If they don't fit into those categories, they probably should be tossed.

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    1. Great suggestions, Dianna, thank you! I would say if you have photos of "unknowns", people, places, etc. you might want to donate those to a library, local historical/genealogical society, etc., rather than throwing them out. I do like your method of the photo boxes, but would hate to see a historical photo of a person tossed out without at least an attempt to identify or place it. Just my two cents, for whatever they are worth.
      Thank you so much for reading and commenting! ~Jen

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    2. Good point, Jen, though I must say that before getting almost to the toss point, I have asked those 3 questions (when, who, where) of every family member, including my mother who gave them to me. At the moment they are in the ??? box, but I will look for a willing recipient.

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    3. If you don't find anyone, let me know. I'll take them. Can always put them up on Deadfred.com and see what happens. :-)

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Please comment! I would love to hear your thoughts!