{"id":502,"date":"2016-12-14T20:01:44","date_gmt":"2016-12-14T20:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/?p=502"},"modified":"2016-12-14T20:12:07","modified_gmt":"2016-12-14T20:12:07","slug":"photo-preservation-for-genealogy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/?p=502","title":{"rendered":"Photo Preservation for Genealogy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I found it interesting that four of Legacy Family Tree’s top 10 webinars of 2016 revolved around photography (Dating Family Photographs – 1900-1940<\/span><\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0Jane Neff Rollins;\u00a0\u00a0Enriching Your Family History through Pictures and Stories<\/span><\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0Amie Bowser Tennant;\u00a0<\/span>Scrapbooking & Journaling for Family History<\/u>\u00a0by Amie Bowser Tennant; and S<\/u><\/span>hare, Store, and Save Your Family Photos<\/u>\u00a0by Maureen Taylor). \u00a0I guess you could even make a case that a fifth one also involves photos (Crowdsourcing with Social Media to Overcome Brick Walls in Genealogy Research<\/u>\u00a0<\/u>by Amie Bowser Tennant) since FaceBook and Pinterest are valuable genealogical tools to find photos.<\/span><\/p>\n

I love discovering photos and when I perform Client work I try to add them to a project. \u00a0Staring into the eyes of an ancestor elicits emotions like no other item can!\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So, that’s why I’m worried about the present habits we have developed (no pun intended!) regarding preserving our photos. \u00a0Our smart phones and other devices have made preserving memories incredibly quick, easy and inexpensive. \u00a0I use my phone’s camera for recording anything I want to refer back to, such as a whiteboard that was used during a brainstorm session in a meeting, two garments I might purchase to see which would better match the shoes I left at home, and of course, family events. \u00a0I take more photos now than at any earlier stages of my life. \u00a0I also have a horrible habit of not preserving those photos I take. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As I walk throughout my home I noticed that most of the framed photos I have on display were taken by a professional. \u00a0Back in the day, having a photograph made was an event in and of itself. \u00a0First you had to find the studio, then book an appointment, make sure everyone was dressed and ready to go and finally, return days later to view the proofs to select which you wanted to purchase. \u00a0Another trip was necessary to pick up the final product. \u00a0No wonder most of those photos are still around. \u00a0So much time, effort and cost was involved the photo was determined to be valuable.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Today, not at all. \u00a0Snap, click, delete if it wasn’t to everyone’s liking or share if it was. \u00a0We don’t print out photos like we did in the past. \u00a0Right after the “Years of the Hurricanes” in Florida in the early 2000’s I would have said it was a blessing not to have more photos to lug during an evacuation. CD and Cloud technology seemed like such a great idea. \u00a0It was the hurricanes that forced me to scan and save my family’s photos – those from the 1800’s to the recent scrapbooks I had created as my children grew up. \u00a0I thought I was being so smart when I saved to CD’s and gave them out as Christmas gifts to various relatives. \u00a0My thought was to spread them around to increase the likelihood that they would be preserved. \u00a0Have a wildfire in California or a twister in the Midwest? \u00a0No worries, the CD will live on in New England. \u00a0I never thought about CD’s going away or family members who misplaced them. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When Cloud technology came out I simply transferred everything online. \u00a0How convenient to be able to access those photos from anywhere! \u00a0But the program I used, Picassa, became defunct. \u00a0So I transferred them to Google Photos and Dropbox and Ancestry. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It just hit me I’ve preserved the past but not the present. \u00a0I’m not saving my current photos at the rate that I did before. \u00a0Our family’s Thanksgiving pics are still in my phone, along with birthdays and other events I’ve recently attended. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Just as I calendar in a monthly day to download my gedcom from Ancestry to save to software (Legacy and RootsMagic7) on my hard drive, a stand alone hard drive and in the Cloud (Dropbox) I need to also be saving my pics. \u00a0Yes, I am paranoid but I’ve invested so much time I would be heartsick if all of those were lost.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What I need to do is to get in the habit of cleaning out the photos and preserving them. \u00a0My plan is to delete those that didn’t come out well and send those I want to keep to my computer. \u00a0I’ll back those up like I do the gedcom. \u00a0This is being added to my New Year’s Resolutions!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I found it interesting that four of Legacy Family Tree’s top 10 webinars of 2016 revolved around photography (Dating Family Photographs – 1900-1940\u00a0by\u00a0Jane Neff Rollins;\u00a0\u00a0Enriching Your Family History through Pictures and Stories\u00a0by\u00a0Amie Bowser Tennant;\u00a0Scrapbooking & Journaling for Family History\u00a0by Amie Bowser Tennant; and Share, Store, and Save Your Family Photos\u00a0by Maureen Taylor). \u00a0I guess you … Continue reading “Photo Preservation for Genealogy”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[281,265,214,384,385],"class_list":["post-502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-organizing-and-planning","tag-archiving","tag-gedcom","tag-legacy-family-tree","tag-photos","tag-rootsmagic7"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=502"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":506,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502\/revisions\/506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}