Preserving your family photos (part 2)
In Preserving your printed family photos (part 1) we discussed ways to take care your photographs in order to help preserve them for the next generation. We will now look at the other aspect of preservation – duplication.
Duplication is an important aspect of preservation because it means that if the original is lost or damaged, it can be replaced with a good quality copy. Print copies can be made directly from the negatives or from the prints themselves. Personally though, I favour digitising them. This enables you to upload your photos to websites, link to your family tree on Ancestry or simply share with relatives and friends. It also allows for a back-up to be kept in another location. One of the most heart-breaking aspects of a house fire is losing photos.
You can pay to have negatives scanned (funnily enough, it is a service we offer) but, with a bit of patience and some basic computer skills, you can do the job yourself. The type and quantity of the negatives or prints will influence the sort of scanner you need as will your budget.
A dedicated photo scanner with good quality components will always give the best results. Match this with Photoshop (or similar) software to ensure you can tweak each image to get the best results. There will be a fair bit of trial and error in finding the right quality settings and Photoshop tricks but there are plenty of internet experts out there to help once you have your hands on a specific scanner.
Speaking of which, if you have 35 mm negatives, a Plustek Film Scanner
will be better. Keep an eye out on e-bay as you do find used scanners coming up as people complete their scanning projects.
Whichever model you choose, you will almost always be looking at a minute or two per scan by the time you have loaded, checked and saved the image. This does add up when there are boxes and boxes… I have to admit I still have a lot to do myself but I’m sure it’s a labour of love that future generations will thank me for.
Preserving your family photos (part 1)
Where do you keep your photographs? In a shoe box?, at the back of the cupboard? or maybe you have been better organised and sorted them into albums?
Photographs are all too often neglected as a source of historical information. They can add so much to a family tree or family history project but they do need careful care to ensure they survive the years. The first photo was taken in 1826 meaning there could already be many generations worth of photos of your relatives. And the importance of photographs is only increasing as we document every aspect of modern life on our mobile phone cameras and Facebook uploads. Backing up recent digital photos is an important issue that we may come back to another time. For now, I want to concentrate on looking after the prints and negatives that are in the back of that cupboard.
Where and how you store your photos is important as the right storage can mean negatives and prints will last well into the future. It can also protect against accidental damage, for example, a household pipe-burst or mould developing due to poor storage conditions.
Basically you want to find the coolest and driest spot in your home – dampness should be avoided at all costs as it will make photos stick together, and is the ideal climate for mould growth. Avoid attics and basements and don’t let temperatures get above 20C / 68F – cooler if possible. So it may actually be that the dark airing cupboard is not too bad a spot after all!
However, there are a few further considerations. Make sure the negatives are in individual plastic sleeves that are designed for photographic use and prevent any chance of the negatives sticking together. Good stockists will advertise their products as being safe for storage and may mention that they meet the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standards. Photographic prints themselves are best stored in a good quality album – make sure the backing paper is acid free and any plastic coverings are photographic quality. Placing them in albums also gives the opportunity to write captions to ensure future generations can identify the subjects.
Today I took my place in UK history
It’s census day in the UK today, and I’ve just completed the Scottish Census online. Convenient for me, but maybe a little disappointing for my hypothetical descendants in 100 years time. They won’t have my handwriting or signature to scan and upload into their family tree! The last census I was recorded in was the 2001 Australian Census and I can’t remember if I ticked the box to have mine included in the time capsule…?
Australia has never allowed personal information from census records to be made available to the public, but in 2001 to commemorate the Centenary of Federation Australian’s were asked if they would like to have their census returns recorded on microfilm and placed into a time capsule to be opened in 2100. Although I wasn’t present for it, I believe Australians were asked again in the 2006 if they would like to be included in a time capsule. The 2011 Australian Census is due to take place on 9th August, but it’s not yet been revealed if there is to be another time capsule.
Scotland and the rest of the UK has on the other hand been very clear that they have every intention of making the personal information recorded in today’s census available to the public in 100 years time. So I’m feeling a little like I’ve just been preserved in history!
The 2011 Scottish Census is collecting far more information from households compared to what was collected by the 1911 England and Wales and Irish Census, and what we expect to have been from from the 1911 Scottish Census when it is made available on 5th April. The 2011 census asked for specific details about employment such as the address of your workplace and the actual activities and tasks required for your job. The real challenge to these questions was answering them in 51 characters or less!
We a very international family. For example, I was born in Australia, I have an Irish passport and I live in Scotland. So unsurprising the questions we found most difficult were the the national identity and the ethnic identity. After great debate with my husband I concluded that I see myself as an Australian first and foremost and therefore my national identity is Australian, but because I live in Scotland, as an EU citizen with an Irish passport gained through Irish descent, my ethnic identity is Irish Australian. I wonder how that is going to be interpreted by the statisticians?
Have you got Clan DNA?
I was recently speaking to a woman who was very disappointed not to have got the result she had expected from a DNA test. She had suspected her family descended from one of the Scottish clans, but the paper trail had fallen short of proving this. So she decided to order a DNA test, and asked a male relative to provide a sample. The problem with using this process to trace Scottish ancestry however, is Scottish brides haven’t always taken their husband’s surname. Sometimes the man took his wife’s surname.
Quite often in Scotland, a family name was attached, or “Entailed”, to the family’s land. It meant that sometimes before a person could inherit land, they needed to first change their surname to that of the person they were inheriting the land from. A person in this situation was called “An Heir in Tailzie”. A good example is a man marrying a woman who is the sole heir to an estate. The man would have been required to take the surname of the woman’s family, or else the land would have passed to someone else.
So several hundred years ago the husband took his wife’s family name, and in turn the couple’s male children passed the family name onto their male children, who in tern passed it on to their male children, and so on. You would expect however, that within a few generations the family would have forgotten the origins of the family name.
Fast forward to the present day and DNA genealogy. The wife’s family name has survived to the present day by being passed to her son’s, then to their son’s, and so on. However, her male descendant’s Y chromosome will be traced to her husband’s ancestry, rather than her own.
It can not be taken for granted therefore, when exploring Scottish ancestry, that a DNA result will necessarily prove, or disprove, that you are a descendant from a specific lineage, such as the Clans. Of course there are many other reasons that can explain a DNA test connects you to a different name, such as adoption, illegitimacy, DNA mutations and drifts, and the surname having more than one founder.
My advice to someone who has not got the DNA result they expected for their Scottish ancestors, think about how the different names could be connected. For example, can you find a birth or marriage record that contains the two names? Try searching for a marriage record with a bride who has your surname and a groom who has the name the DNA test identified. Or, maybe the husband passed on his family name by giving it to his children as a middle name …
If you haven’t had your family’s DNA tested yet, have a look at the different packages Family Tree DNA have to offer.
Give Yourself the ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ Treatment
One of the highlights of my visit to ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ Live last weekend, was the workshop facilitated by Sarah Williams, Editor of WDYTYA Magazine. The workshop was appropriately called ‘Give Yourself the Who Do You Think You are Treatment’. Sarah explained that she often gets feedback from her readers who can’t understand why they haven’t had the emotional reaction all the celebrities seem to have on the show. Sarah has a pretty good answer to this, dates and places of births, marriages and deaths just aren’t that exciting.
Sarah’s advice to people researching their family history is to go slow and take time to focus in depth on one ancestor at time, . If you think about the ‘Who Do You Think You?’ show, they only actually focus a a couple of people, but in real detail. They tell a story of the person’s life relevant to the historical and geographic context in which they lived.
Sarah encouraged everyone to be as creative as possible to find information about the local history of where their ancestors lived. She suggested doing a ‘lucky dip’ of online sources such as google, and online newspapers such as ‘The Times’. This means entering a random search term such as your ancestors name, where the lived or their occupation and just seeing what comes up. You may get lucky and find photos of people that did the same job that your ancestor did, for example a photo of coal miner in Cornwall at the turn of the century. Sarah really recommends you do this, even if you don’t know if the person in the picture is your ancestor, it is still a visual clue that will help you to connect to your ancestor’s time and place in history.
Getting ready for WDYTYA
I am so excited about my trip to London this weekend. I am booked into all three days at WDYTYA, including the conference on the Sunday. I’m not sure what I am looking forward to seeing the most. It is so hard to be only able to pick a handful of workshops from a list of 120! One of the workshops I am particularly looking forward to is Maureen Taylor’s “preserving family treasures’. Better known as ‘The Photo Detective’, Maureen is an expert in preserving family photos. This is something both my husband and I are interested in learning more about. My husband recently bought a digital scanner and has been busy scanning his childhood memories onto the hard-drive. That’s all well and to ensure that we have the photos backed up digitally, but I’m keen to get some ideas on how we can preserve the original photos as well.
ScotlandsPeople Centre
I’ve planned a trip into the ScotlandsPeople Centre at Register House in Edinburgh tomorrow. I’ll be working on two Family Trees, for two different clients, both using the Scottish Statutory Registers. It’s interesting that although the two clients are from opposites sides of the Atlantic, they both appear to have very similar Ancestral roots in the Glasgow area. I look forward to hopefully finding some clues to help explain why one of their ancestors made the decision nearly a 100 years to immigrate across the pond. We are so lucky in Scotland to have such easy access to vital records.
Who Do you Think You Are? Live 2011
This afternoon I finally booked my tickets for ‘Who Do You Think You Are Live’ next month. There was so much to organise! Flights from Edinburgh to London, three nights accommodation, and three days worth of workshops, from the list of 120! Now all that’s left to find, is some suitable night time entertainment, and at the moment the Ghost Bus Tour is looking good.
I have volunteered to man the Association of Professional Genealogists’ exhibit on the Saturday afternoon. Not quite sure what I’ve got myself in for, but I’m sure it will be lots of fun. On the Sunday I’ve got a ticket for the Family History Conference.
I am really looking forward to the Society of Genealogists’ workshops. Although the workshops are all free, the organisers will let you buy two workshop tickets in advance, each day. It costs £2 per workshop, but it means you can skip the queue, so I think it’s money well spent!
If you are at WDYTYA Live on the Saturday, come and say hi to me at the APG exhibit, number 519, between 4 and 5pm.
Protecting our precious memories
I feel somewhat guilty establishing a new business, particularly one that relies on the preservation of records, at a time when my hometown of Brisbane is being decimated by floods. It addition to the loss of lives and homes, it also breaks my heart to think about the irreplaceable family photos, mementos, certificates and other valuable documents that have been lost or destroyed.
Not all is lost though. For example, there are images from a family photo album circulating on Facebook , posted by someone who found the album floating in the flood water. Hundreds of people have reposted the link in a desperate attempt to return the photo album to the owner. Likewise, we have seen on Twitter similar acts of kindness, such as the offer from Inkjet Labs at Bowen Hills, in Brisbane. Inkjet Labs have volunteered to clean, copy and save onto a disk any photographs that have been damaged by flood water.
If you have flood damaged photos, that are dirty or stuck together, put them into a bath of clean water before they dry out. Very gently move the photographs around in the water to remove any dirt, then leave them to dry face up on paper towel. Be really careful not to wipe the photos while they are wet. The Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Material (AICCM) provides further advice for salvaging water-damaged belongings.
At the start of the year I tweeted about an article from WorldVitalRecords.com, outing a few simple actions that we should all undertake at least annually to back up and save our precious and irreplaceable family photos and records. I could never have imagined that only days later, the importance of this would be illustrated so dramatically in the place where i grew up. Readers in the UK please get in touch if need some assistance scanning negatives, photographs and documents to store electronically or online.
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