Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Quick technology update

By 3 Comments

ihearttechOver the last couple of months I pondered purchasing some technology to help me in my family history research. I panted over the ScanSnap SV600 contactless scanner. And I asked your opinion about whether I should get an iPad air to help with genealogy.

Guess what? I bought both!

On December 26, I purchased a 64-gigabyte, wifi-only, white iPad Air. And I ordered the scanner on December 29, though it arrived about a week ago.

So far, I haven’t had the opportunity to use the iPad much for genealogy. My research has been done at my desk and I prefer to use my MacBook Pro (with external monitor, keyboard and mouse) at my desk. But I’m traveling this week to do some business planning (but probably not any genealogy research) and I suspect my iPad will get lots of use.I bought Lisa Louise Cooke’s ebook, Turn Your iPad into a Genealogy Powerhouse, but I haven’t read it yet. That may become airplane reading for me.

I’m really struck by the speed and lightness of the iPad Air, especially compared with the iPad 1 that I purchased in 2010. (And sold in 2013.) It’s also much faster than my iPhone 4S and makes it feel downright clunky.

The ScanSnap SV600 is actually smaller than I expected (which is a good thing). I had no difficulty setting it up, but I’m finding there’s a bit of a learning curve in using it. I haven’t yet set aside the time to figure out exactly how to manipulate the images after scanning to remove the curvature of a book, for example. But it’s all very promising.

Once I start really using this technology, I’ll let you know how useful I find both of these new toys!

Dealing with a box of family photos

By 11 Comments

trying to create order from a jumbled box of family photosUntil recently my mother had a box of old family photos in her closet that we would enjoy going through with her when I visited. As I’ve become more involved with family history research and with learning about proper preservation techniques, I realized that I really wanted to get the photos to my home and deal with them properly.

So when I was there a couple of weeks ago, I mailed them to myself. They arrived last week. That’s a photo of the box and its jumbled contents.

I don’t know about you, but when I see a box like that and think about creating order out of it, I get a little overwhelmed. But, luckily, something else came in the mail the next day. It was the Family Archivist Survival Kit, sold by Sally Jacobs, The Practical Archivist. Part of the kit is her Loose Photos Kit (I certainly have loose photos!). That includes archival-quality storage boxes and envelopes as well as instruction.

My intention is to buy the ScanSnap SV600 scanner and scan these babies. But first, I have to create some order and figure out what I have.

Knowing that I have a place to put photos after I sort them (and after I scan them) gives me peace of mind.

Step One is going to be to read the copious information provided in the kits. Step Two (unless I learn otherwise) is going to be to sort into families. And Step Three will be to sort by individual. Maybe it’s the professional organizer in me, but I know I’ll feel better once the photos are sorted and I see what I have and also have segregated the photos that need identification–of which there will be many.

Many aspects of family history research make me feel overwhelmed. And here’s another case. But having resources and supplies available to me is hugely helpful, and probably the reason I was able to actually take the box from my mother. (She’s been offering it for years.)

I’ll write here about the progress and any surprises that are thrown my way!

An unexpected gift

By 10 Comments

davebealetterI’m still visiting my family and today, I stopped by to see my aunt (my father’s sister). She delighted me by giving me a photo of she and my father, taken in 1934, when they were 5 and 6 years old. Adorable. I’m very grateful for it.

Then she blew me away by pulling out a 36-page handwritten letter (though at least two pages are missing) from my grandfather to my grandmother, written about a month before they were married in 1927. My grandfather, David Adams, wanted to reveal his life’s story to his sweetheart in hopes that she would still want to marry him.

How tantalizing is that for a genealogy enthusiast? As I’ve written here, I’ve been frustrated in my efforts to know more about my grandparents. I didn’t know why my grandfather’s family moved from Kentucky to Washington in the first decade of the 20th century or why his parents were estranged. I’m hoping to learn the answers (at least from his perspective) in the letter. Maybe I’ll also learn why it is that these estranged parents were buried next to one another.

I’ve not yet read the letter. I have a long flight ahead of me on Saturday and I think I’m going to wait until I have that uninterrupted time to dig into it and see what mysteries are solved and what facts are revealed. I am so grateful to my aunt for sharing it with me and promised to scan it (guess what I’ll be buying!) and return the original to her, though she promised I’ll be able to keep the original one day.

I noticed that on the back of the last sheet, my grandfather wrote, “Destroy the manuscript, will you please?” I am so happy that my grandmother ignored that request!

Label old photos while you can

By 2 Comments

A great example of how not to label a photo!

A great example of how not to label a photo!

I’m visiting my parents in Walla Walla, Washington, and today my mother and I went through (for the second or third time) a big box of photos that she inherited after her mother passed away. Most of the photos are from here father’s family, the Browns. Thanks to my getting to know some of the Brown cousins earlier this year, the names made more sense than they had in the past.

But oh how I wish more of the photos had been labeled. And that those that were labeled had better labels! (The photo with this post is of the back of one of the photos we looked at today.) And, of course, my other big wish is that I’d taken the time a decade or more ago, when my mother’s memory was stronger, to go through them with her.

If all the photos had been labeled with the first and last names of those pictured and the date the photo was taken, my time going through them with my mother would have been more of a trip down memory lane for her, rather than a series of head scratchers. But we did make some progress and we had a very nice time.

My mother has given me permission to take the photos home with me. I intend to do more detective work and scan the photos that I can identify and attach them to my family tree. (Yet another reason to buy the scanner I’m coveting!) I’ll be attending the Brown family reunion in June and my intention is to bring those photos with me and ask for help in identifying some of the unlabeled photos. And, of course, I’ll be happy to share photos.

Once I get home from my trip and start dealing with these photos, I’ll do more research on what to do with the originals, as well as how to electronically tag and file the photos for ease of access in sharing. (And I’ll share here.)

I have many steps ahead of me. But one thing I know is that while I’m grateful that generations before me hung on to these photos, I wish they’d taken the time to give them good labels!