Preserving Family History Photos and Videos

Tips for Family Historians to Help Future Generations Get It Right

Jun 7, 2009

Having faced a bewildering box of old photos of unknown relatives, any family historian will be determined to simplfy matters for future generations. Here's how to do it

Too often, when a family member takes on the role of family historian and starts to piece together the family tree, they acquire ‘Grandma’s photos’, a motley collection of sometimes damaged, unclear photographs. They soon discover that they can recognize few of the hundreds of people represented. Where Grandma has thought to write notes on the back of photos, it can be quite cryptic: ‘Bert, Muggers and me – Our big Day Out’ or some such wording.

Such experiences should make all would-be family historians keen to make the research role of subsequent generations a little easier. This article offers some tips for preserving and annotating family photos and audio-visual material for posterity.

Preserving Existing Photos

Photos are fragile. Store them in a dry, temperate part of the house, and, if possible, between sheets of acid-free paper. Old, damaged photos can be restored and copied by experts; photos in good condition can at least be scanned and recorded digitally, so there is a back-up.

Writing on the back of photos can lead to damage, but some detailed notes need to be kept somewhere. Perhaps photos can be given a reference number and then a detailed account of the people, their relationships, and any interesting stories that flesh out their characters can be added. This is, of course, time- consuming, but consider the time genealogists devote to finding out even the names and birth and death dates of past generations. Of course, the process can be carried out judiciously. There may be 30 photos of Uncle Fred’s 80th birthday party. Most will be poor or repetitive. Select one, or maybe 2, to represent the event and identify those present.

Preserving Photos in the Digital Era

The digital camera (and mobile phone) has placed photography in more hands than ever before. The process is simple, there is no film wastage, storage is fast and simple, also. However, when these delightful electronic gems first captured the market, historians voiced alarm at the possibility that the ‘box of photos’ would be no more, that thousands of wonderful historical photos would perish on impermanent media, and die with the computer hard drives they were stored on.

Let us not discount this fear; it is possible to lose data, including photos. The solution is simple. The serious family historian should regularly sift and select the very best of digital photos, and copy them to a CD or Memory Stick, which can then be labeled, stored with its accompanying descriptive text (even electronically with a Word document).

Keeping Pace with Technology

Digital photos and family videos or other audio-visual data needs to be kept together, perhaps , along with physical family memorabilia, in a History Box. The family ‘keeper’ needs to regularly inspect the collection and be aware of changing technology. Videos are close to being obsolete technology. Perhaps it’s time to have them transferred to DVD (there are firms who will do this for you). As years go by, there is a need for vigilance. Future generations will not thank you for leaving them an electronic record that needs a museum piece to access it. When something supersedes the USB, the present digital camera, the DVD, it is the family historian’s responsibility to make sure that existing valuable family records are transferred to the new medium.

With a little time and forethought, today’s family moments can be stored for retrieval by future generations. The young, in particular, have already acquired the habit of recording and sharing their daily lives on such internet social pages as Facebook, but those records will not be around to be tapped in 100 years time, nor are they thoughtfully written or photos selected with the care that family history deserves. Perhaps it is time for everyone to set aside just a tiny fraction of the time they devote to Facebook or MySpace for some serious recording of history. After all, our daily lives are tomorrow’s history. Besides, you could turn your family story into a great novel!!

The copyright of the article Preserving Family History Photos and Videos in Genealogy is owned by James Parsons. Permission to republish Preserving Family History Photos and Videos in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.