Until 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!
And I have 6 or 8 rubbermaid tubs of photos I’ve inherited with my m-i-l promising to bring more when they move near us. Let me know how it goes cousin – I am willing – I am willing – I am willing.
Talk about overwhelming, Julie! I will let you know how it goes with my little box. My advice to you would be to take it a little at a time.
I have had “A BOX” of bits n pieces since I was a teen. The box that came from Grama & Grampa’s garage. Over the past 25 years, I have been raising kids and keeping house. This box would come out every so often. I finally divided it up into “Known & Unknown’s”. A few more years of genealogy research and I divided the “Known’s” up into like group’s. This is when things really started making sense and I was able to match photos with people in my tree. Now I have many letters and still a small pile of “Unknown’s”. I go back through ever 6 months or so now. I keep looking and finding more and more little hints. I have even sent originals back to a grand daughter who had never seen a picture of her grandmother as a toddler. Who would of known that my great grandmother had a photo of a great uncle’s children?
In these photos are a lot of “Post Card” photos. Sent and Unsent. I am now recording the information of the written dates, the stamped location & date if there is one and on the post cards that have the “Stick Stamp Here” spot unused, there is a way to age the paper. Giving your post card paper a time that they were physically manufactured. OH WHAT FUN!
Shana, thank you so much for your comment! I love how you’ve turned this challenge into a game and created a really wonderful system to get past feeling overwhelmed (if you ever felt that way) by your box of photos! It really is a treasure. Thank you so much for sharing.
I think you should sort your box chronologically – oldest to newest. First by color and black and white. Then match photo sizes, shapes, fade tint, processors date or code stamp.
Use the front and back for clues along with the margins, shapes, sometimes photos were trimmed with a ‘wavy’ edge. Basically your trying to re-assemble them in the order taken over the decades and in the roll of film in the camera. Then scan them in this RAW order at the highest resolution you deem best. Scan front and back. Once your thru that then you can do as others said sort by families, sort by people etc.. – only leave your RAW files alone other than back them up. Then you can create new folders by family, by person etc.. If you have been blessed hopefully someone wrote on the back who the people are, where they where and when it was.
Thanks for sharing your strategy, Dann!
Just sing that Sesame street song when you start out: One of these things is not like the other, one of these things is just not the same. . . .
My paternal grandmother wrote names and usually dates on all the pictures I inherited from her! Thank you, Grandmother!
You are right to be grateful! Thanks for commenting.
Cool article. I’m about to approach this same photo issue myself. I hadn;t seen the scanner that you mentioned, so I’ll look into it. I’ve had my eye on the ‘Epson FastFoto FF-640 High-Speed Photo Scanning System with Auto Photo Feeder’. It can handle stacks of photos, brittle photos, and scan handwritten notes on the backs of them very quickly. It has lots of good reviews from many who have faced this same situation. I wish there was a magic wand for organizing family photos!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HR89FNK/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I1DTZ5M1J7OCLV&colid=1XO295AHJTCYC&psc=0
Love these stories, really gives me some wonderful ideas, thank you all. I can just see an assembly of pictures laid out on a beautiful table as you sort through the challenge. Maybe it’s me, but now I’m thinking of Walter Wicks-style photograph with a life depicted on a table… (Remember him, from the “Eye Spy” books? Amazing.)