Archive for Photos & Memorabilia

How NOT to save your photos or donate books

photos

Photos found in donated books (click to enlarge)

Have you ever hidden anything in a book? Maybe used a photo as a bookmark? I don’t recommend it as a way to save your photos! Here’s why:

I volunteer weekly for my local Friends of the Library. We price and sort donated books for our monthly used book sales (at which I also run a cash register), and we have a lovely used book shop in the Main library downtown which is open six days a week. We raise around $200K every year for library programs such as the Summer Reading Program for children.

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The holidays are for sharing family photos and stories

Not a holiday, but a family (mine) enjoying a photo album together. This is a newspaper clipping from the Idaho Statesman, in 1965, when the new minister and his family came to town.

 

When do “the holidays” begin and end for you? For me, they start with Thanksgiving and end on January 1st. Halloween serves as a heads-up: The holidays are coming!

No matter what holidays you celebrate, if you are lucky enough to have a family that enjoys getting together (in person or virtually), it’s the perfect time for sharing family photos and stories. It’s also a great opportunity to learn from your elders, share your genealogy discoveries, and create new memories.

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About the Photomyne scanning app

Let’s start with the fact that I am an emeritus (retired) member of The Photo Managers who never specialized in photo scanning. But the more popular it becomes, the more confused I see people getting. So, I’m hoping to clear things up a bit.

Instead of becoming a crackerjack photo manager like some of my colleagues, I combined my general professional organizing and genealogy experience into a book called What’s a Photo Without the Story? How to Create Your Family Legacy. It includes chapters on how to organize, preserve, and share your family photos. So I do have a vested interest — not so much in HOW people do it, but more THAT they do it, and making it seem do-able to them.

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“We Remember” our loved ones

This post is about how to use the free, interactive, social, memorial platform We Remember, by Ancestry.

So, my dad died recently. It was somewhat unexpected — I mean, he wasn’t in the best of health at age 88, but he was in remission from lymphoma. And I can only hope to go as peacefully as he did, in my sleep, when it’s my turn.

If you knew him, and if this is the first time you’re hearing the news, I’m so sorry! I invite and encourage you to click over to Dad’s memorial page and post a photo or a memory. Well, maybe wait until you’ve finished reading this page. His ashes will be inurned, at some point, at Santa Fe National Cemetery, in a private family ceremony. There will be no traditional (or Zoom) funeral. His choice of a place to donate, if you so wish, appears at the end of his obituary (farewell letter), which he wrote himself and would want you to read.

I’ve learned a few things while creating and moderating his We Remember memorial page that I want to share with all of you — whether you knew him or not. I hope to make it easier for you to use the platform as a guest, as a registered member, or as the potential moderator of your own loved one’s memorial page.

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Do you know where your photos are?

September is Save Your Photos Month!

>>> Free Online Event — Register Here! <<<

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My new favorite thing: Collectionaire

When I first heard Stan Kinsey talking about Collectionaire, on Maureen Taylor The Photo Detective’s podcast, I thought: “OMG. This is exactly what I’ve been looking for!!!”

 

What is it?

Collectionaire is an amazing way to pull digital memorabilia stored in various cloud locations into one place, making it easier for family members to see and interact with.

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September is Save Your Photos Month!

Every September, Photo Managers, photo retailers, software companies, and service providers collaborate to hold in-person and virtual events aimed at supporting your photo organizing needs through education and inspiration.

 

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What’s a photo without the story?

UPDATE #1: Mystery solved! (scroll down)

UPDATE #2: I was so taken by my grandmother’s “bathing beauty” photograph that I used it on the cover of my 2021 book — What’s a Photo Without the Story? How to Create Your Family Legacy (click to learn more). The book is not about my family, per se, but I do use my own photos and stories as examples of what you can do, too. This is the longest story in the book. Most are one image plus a paragraph or two.

Who is this saucy young woman? Don’t know? Don’t care?

She looks like fun, though, doesn’t she?

What if you found this photo in a bin at Goodwill? For sale on eBay?

Would you buy it? Would you feel vaguely sad that somebody got rid of it, and move on?

What if you found her in your parents’ stuff and didn’t know who she was?

Would you keep, or toss? Would you try to find the story behind the photo?

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Are your keepsakes a legacy, or a liability?

Mom's punch bowl, usually used for fruit, is being used here for pecans.

Mom’s crystal punch bowl, usually used for fruit, is being used here for pecans.

Have you inherited keepsakes you don’t know what to do with?

I can’t tell you how many of my clients have had a garage or storage unit full of stuff they inherited from a loved one. These items represent a mix of emotions – memories good and bad; guilt over secretly wanting to reclaim the space they occupy; fear that they will accidentally discard a priceless heirloom. They are paralyzed with indecision: Am I betraying my loved one if I part with this item? Will I forget them if I don’t keep all their stuff? (I promise you won’t!) How, and where, can I get rid of it? How, and where, can I keep it?

 

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Are your files backed up?

I originally wrote this post for World Back Up Day (Don’t be an April Fool – Take the Pledge!)

But…really, shouldn’t every day be Back Up Day?

(Click to view video: “What Would You Do if You Lost Everything?“)

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