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Post by joblackford on Aug 12, 2024 21:17:22 GMT
I came across this video with good tips for how to handle inherited family photos, especially when you get a huge collection that are completely unsorted and random. She had some good ideas for how to break the task down into manageable steps.
I also agree with her advice about dictating journals instead of typing them - dictation software is built into most devices now and you can save the text wherever you like, but having it searchable is so helpful, and it serves as a digital backup too. I did that with my own journals from many years ago.
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GiantsFan
Prolific Pea
Posts: 8,457
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Jun 27, 2014 14:44:56 GMT
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Post by GiantsFan on Aug 12, 2024 22:04:26 GMT
Good info here. Thanks for sharing, Jo. I've mentioned before that I was the custodian of my families photo box (one of the big rubbermaid containers). I separated into "family" groups and non-family. I shredded the blurry and duplicate photos. I kept "my" photos and scanned what I wanted of the general family photos, then gave the general to the next family to sort through. And so on. It was very freeing to pass them on to the next person. (I may or may not have shredded some the photos of the non-family people  ) DH has all the photos from his parents. We're planning on going through them this fall and winter. I like the idea of putting them in size order first and going from there. He does have full photo albums (8.5 x 11). I plan on scanning those in their pages. The only thing I would add is to keep it manageable. Do you really need 14 shots of someone sitting on the shore at the lake? Pick the one you like the best and shred the rest. |
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Post by joblackford on Aug 13, 2024 1:25:48 GMT
Good info here. Thanks for sharing, Jo. I've mentioned before that I was the custodian of my families photo box (one of the big rubbermaid containers). I separated into "family" groups and non-family. I shredded the blurry and duplicate photos. I kept "my" photos and scanned what I wanted of the general family photos, then gave the general to the next family to sort through. And so on. It was very freeing to pass them on to the next person. (I may or may not have shredded some the photos of the non-family people ) DH has all the photos from his parents. We're planning on going through them this fall and winter. I like the idea of putting them in size order first and going from there. He does have full photo albums (8.5 x 11). I plan on scanning those in their pages. The only thing I would add is to keep it manageable. Do you really need 14 shots of someone sitting on the shore at the lake? Pick the one you like the best and shred the rest. Agreed! Being able to share with the other family members is a huge gift. I'd rather have a selection of precious photos I can make sense of than a whole room of random photos and albums (which is what one branch of our family is going to be dealing with). I loved the shortcut of sorting the totally random photos by size, shape, and style. Just having somewhere to start, to break the task into chunks. |
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Post by melanell on Aug 13, 2024 12:14:05 GMT
I'll add that social media makes identifying unknown people in pics so much easier now, too. You can start by posting to known family, but if that doesn't work, you can try groups for specific towns or areas if you know that many of your relatives lived there. I connected with a woman who went to school with my aunt, and though we're not related, several of my relatives show up in her family pics and hers in mine. We were each able to answer a lot of questions and share more photos, too. She had photos of some relatives that I didn't even have photos of.  |
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artbabe
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,352 
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Post by artbabe on Aug 13, 2024 14:16:31 GMT
Ancestry.com is good for finding more family photos, too, and identifying ones you have.
I posted info/photos of my grandfather on a family tree and someone contacted me. She had a picture that contained my grandpa as a little boy, his mom, his grandmother, and his great-grandmother. It was awesome. It is so cool that I can't even believe the photo exists. She actually sent me the physical photo, too. I knew what those people looked like, but if you did't it would be great for identifying people. She also had a photo from the same family reunion, which was in 1913, that had a key that identified most of the people in it. It was amazing.
I have most of the family photos going back to the 1880s. I actually have a few Civil War era photos, too, but I have no idea who those people are. When my grandpa died I found a box of them in his attic. I was so happy to find it. I can identify the people from the 1880's on. My sister has most of the more recent family albums. By more recent I mean 1940's through 2000. I'm so happy those are in albums.
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christinec68
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,388
Location: New York, NY
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Post by christinec68 on Aug 13, 2024 14:54:37 GMT
Perfect timing...I saved the video to watch later. Thank you for sharing joblackford ! |
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Post by lisacharlotte on Aug 13, 2024 19:06:24 GMT
*****
The only thing I would add is to keep it manageable. Do you really need 14 shots of someone sitting on the shore at the lake? Pick the one you like the best and shred the rest.
*****
As much as I might snark on Becky Higgins, she did a multi part video that addressed this exact problem. People get fixated on a series of photos with minute changes in position. Pick your favorite, toss or give away the rest. Same with blurry, off center, cut off photos. Unless it's the only photo that exists if that moment, oilers the good picture.
I have a picture of me and my brother. One of those small b/w photos from 1967-68. We're standing in our underwear and my brother's head is cut off. It's the only photo of us together at that moment, capturing us relatively up close and the background of our apartment is clear. It's a precious photo and a keeper.
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Post by marg on Aug 18, 2024 19:40:16 GMT
Thanks for posting this video, I have a few boxes of inherited photos as well as a box of slides that I have to sort and go through. I keep putting it off, it's a daunting task!
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