Somewhere along the line, I appointed myself as the family historian. (Well, as one of the family historians – My dad has done incredible family research, which I’d be lost without, and both my parents have preserved so many family moments in pictures and videos.) I don’t know why or when this happened, but I can’t help but spend free time researching family trees, scanning and organizing old photos, and digitizing old home movies. It’s definitely a mixed blessing. This can feel like a time-sucking hobby, for sure. I also feel a strong urge to be recording my current family’s moments, as well as, you know, LIVING these moments. But, since it’s part of who I am, I may as well embrace it, enjoy it, and try to be efficient in it.
One of the issues for me has been how quickly technology and systems change. Just when I think I’ve found a good way to do something, a better system presents itself. Ah, well.
PHOTOS
I started my journey as the family photo scanner. I scanned countless photos over the years and have countless more that haven’t been touched. (My family of origin REALLY liked taking photos.) Here are some of photo scanning tips, from my experience:
–I know not everyone agrees with this, but if you’re dealing with massive amounts of photos, or even a moderate amount, I recommend only scanning the “star” photos. I started by scanning EVERY. SINGLE. PHOTO. Not only does this eat up scanning time and computer memory, but it’s just more to sort through and label. And, frankly, there’s not much desire to even look at all of these, so why go through the trouble? Not everyone has this “problem” of too many memories preserved in photos, so it may sound strange, but for those who are blessed with a lot of photos, this is my recommendation.
–When I did most of my initial photo scanning, I used a scan bed. Now there are apps that make this process ridiculously simple. I don’t have much experience with them, but I would definitely be using these if I was starting the digitizing now.
–I recommend labeling as you go, and labeling groups of photos, rather than individual ones. I used to label each photo with who was in the picture and where it was. Not to say this isn’t helpful, perhaps to future generations, but I just keep it simple for now.
Here’s how I label photos so they can be sorted in order– YEAR-MONTH NUMBER (then) MONTH. [Example: 1985-03 March]
When programs or computers organize in alphabetical/numerical order, this will ensure the photos stay in order. Also, if you only know the year, you can still get photos into their general chronological order. After that basic label, I then decide if I want to add details. If years aren’t known, I try to group by decades based on the ages of the people in the photos.
–I also wish I had posted these into an online file storage site as I went. At the time I started scanning, I was copying everything onto discs, and now I wish I had just been sharing and storing things online from the start.
SLIDES
We inherited quite a few boxes of slides, so I was very excited to find a way to convert them into digital format. I used a simple converter machine for awhile – nothing fancy, but it worked. It actually seemed a bit flimsy at first, but it did what I needed. Now as I revisit the lightweight machine years later though, I’m sad to say it hasn’t held up. I’m trying to decide if getting a new converter is worth it for the remainder of the slides we have. Our local library system has a Library of Things that loans out everything from board games to telescopes. They finally got a slide converter in the system, but it’s checked out for months in advance. Just requires a little patience and planning.
8MM TAPES
Researching how to convert 8mm video tapes took me FOR.EV.ER! I finally figured it out and purchased an old camcorder and a VidBox and it’s been super easy ever since (just time-consuming). The tapes do have to play and record in “real time,” but I find that if I’m doing other things and get a tape started, this doesn’t really matter. Tips:
–My family of origin has Sooooo much footage. I know this might not be a “problem” most people have, so some of this may sound silly to those who are happy to have the little bits of home video they do have. For me, I find that it’s really helpful to transfer our footage into iMovie and do some editing. There is no way my family is ever going to sit and watch the hours and hours of video. Sometimes I edit these by events. Sometimes I simply upload a short bit that would be fun to view and share. I’ve got a clip of my brother at age 10 waving to the camera and saying “Hello” to his future kids, who are now that age. How cool is that! So, I uploaded that 15-second video by itself. But, usually, I’ll edit a sports game or recital or holiday or trip as its own video.
–Sites like Sync, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. are great for sharing old videos or photos. You can organize into folders and share select links.
CURRENT
The tricky balance for me is keeping up with the current photos and videos, in addition to all those cool ones from my own childhood. I know many people who take tons of photos and footage on their phones and then hardly look at it again. I try my best to do something with the footage I take, but it’s tough.
–I regularly download photos onto my computer and organize/label by month. (Nope. I’ve finally caught up with the times and use synching iCloud)
–I delete the bad photos/videos or less-than-awesome ones. (Hard to do with sweet kiddos in the pic, but worth it.)
–I (*try to*) regularly pick the best photos/videos of the month and transfer them to an online storage platform.
–Even with all the other digital chaos I’ve got going on, I always take a monthly photo of each child and load it to a file. I also work very hard to make a short birthday compilation video for each child every year. Having at least these makes me feel better that I haven’t organized the hundreds of photos and videos I take each month.
SHARING
For me, one of the best parts of all of this is sharing with other family members. I know the photo/video sharing thing is crazy trendy on social media sites. But since I don’t have the Twitter or Instantgram, I thought it would be fun to share old photos in a place where they can easily be accessed and categorized. In the past I’ve put together discs, online storage files, and even private blogs. I’m currently working on some online Family Trees for each branch of the family. I may be the only one who actually looks at these, but I love having these as a reference, and someday, someday, someone from the family may be interested. (I recently went to a virtual Genealogy conference, and I was so relieved to find some people who are just as dorky as I am about family history. Huzzah!)
I’m working at realizing this is an ongoing process and not a project that I’ll get to just cross off my to-do list one productive Saturday. I’m trying to enjoy the treasures of videos and photos I do find and share, instead of thinking about the pile of ones I haven’t gotten to. I’m trying to remember that sometimes by preserving/digitizing a special handful of photos and videos rather than the whole massive pile, I can actually have the space to appreciate those ones more. For anyone else in the rare position of having an overabundance of preserved family memories, perhaps you can relate. But some of the methods above have helped me at least begin this journey, and I’m hoping that maybe some of these ideas can help someone else.