After my extended family departed from our Thanksgiving celebration, a series of group photos began to appear in my email and on social media sites we all share. We have become accustomed to having a large picture (it gets harder as the family grows) each year. One of my jobs (as the family historian) has been to file these pictures and identify them for future reference. For that reason, I have learned several lessons about the task of preserving photographic memories.
The first lesson, probably, is that you can never have enough back-ups for digital photos. My sister just had her laptop stolen - and it had all her pictures stored on it. I can't emphasize how important it is to store these types of photos in several places (CDs, DVDs, portable hard drives - or printed copies!). Remember, electronic media degrade over time. If you are preserving photos, you may also want to take the time to back up your videos and Audio Genealogy Records,
For older photos, it is crucial that they be protected from the elements. You could probably save yourself some frustration if you scan old photos and store them (in another place) electronically - just in case you are the victim of a some kind of water/wind/fire disaster. There are also several important steps you may need to take to protect the originals (e.g., acid-free albums, etc.).
Additional tools and resources can be found at the sites below:
AARP.org
Heritage Photographs
Minnesota Historical Society
Use your photos to augment the information in your (text) family history. As always, happy hunting!
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