The photo albums and boxes of photos are piled all over my office. I keep thinking, "What have I gotten myself into?" I'm dealing with the daunting task of organizing family photos, that span over 100 years. As I'm going through these photographs, I keep thinking, "I wish I would have talked to mom and dad, more, about who these people are," or "I wish mom would have organized these for me." We all think we have more time. I'm sure mom thought that she would get to that one day. Hindsight is 20/20, right?
I lost my mom in 2010 and my dad in 2020. After my dad died, my brothers and I spent about a year and a half going through the house that we, and my mother, grew up in. Needless to say, there was A LOT of stuff to go through. While it was nice to divide family heirlooms and trinkets, the possessions that I appreciated the most, were the photographs. I volunteered to go through all of the albums and loose photos that were thrown in boxes, organize them, digitalize them and divide the hard copies among us. It is a work in progress. If that wasn't enough, I have also decided to complete ancestry photo albums while I'm organizing the photos.
Based on what I've been doing with the photographs in the past 6 months, I decided that I could give some great advice, to people who are up to their elbows in photographs or, perhaps, prevent the work that I am going through now. It is never too early to start organizing family photos, especially those photos that are actually printed. Here is some advice to get you started:
If you are lucky enough to still have an older generation around, set aside time to go through photo albums with them. It is not going to be a one day job. Make a point to choose a series of days and times to get together. If you are in the position that I am in, and are trying to figure out the who/what/where of the photos, take a deep breath and find your patience. Do some initial organizing by dividing the photos by events, years and/or people.
Recruit other family members. Even if you all can't get together every time, having at least one more person will make the process go faster and you will have another person around to hear the information or ask questions.
Write who the people are on the photos, even if you think you are going to remember. You won't. Write the year or year span, if you know that information.
Digitalize. I decided to scan and use my iPhone to digitalize my photos. This is a big undertaking. There are a lot of companies out there that will digitalize for you and may be worth the cost if you don't have the time or the patience to scan every photo. Be sure to title photos or explain who is in each digital photo, as well as, record year or time frame.
Organize the loose photos. I have two suggestions on how to do this: 1) Get some large manilla envelopes. Write the names of each family member on an envelope. As you go through the loose photos and after you have scanned/digitalized the photo, you can decide who gets the hard copy and put it in the appropriate envelope. OR 2) Get some photo albums. Dedicate each one to each family member who you are dividing the hard copies between. You still may want to use the manilla envelope method first, then when complete, you can organize the photos chronologically, before placing them in the album.
Create digital photo books for each family member. The great thing about digital photo books is that you can create one album and print several copies. Again, there are a lot of options. I have used Shutterfly for the past 12 years and have been very pleased with the options I have had to create photo books.
This is an overwhelming job, but I believe that it is worth it. If family history and family photos are important to you, take the time to organize and digitalize your family photos.
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