52 Ancestors Week 35: Unforgettable

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 35's theme is "Unforgettable." Family history is about remembering. Who or what in your family is unforgettable? What have you discovered in your research surprised you that it was forgotten? What are you doing to make sure your discoveries aren't forgotten?

I wonder if the symbolism for this header is too on the nose. ;)

It's an interesting coincidence that this prompt came up today because this morning my mother showed me a treasure trove of photos my grandfather sent her back in the mid 2000s. I quickly went to work scanning them all because that is the best way to make sure that the pictures aren't forgotten. Makes sense, right? You want to preserve all of the pictures you have ever gotten. Even in digital form.

Today, I figured I'd take everyone through a step by step process of what I do after I scan a picture. Are you ready? Here goes!

1. Scan the photo.

The Felker clan circa the 1930s.

Okay. That one is obvious. You scan a photo and make sure you have it aligned perfectly. I can't tell you how many times I've had a crooked image in a scanner. This happened a lot to me when  I was a comic reviewer and I needed to make sure that the comic I was scanning was aligned with a little arrow in my scanner. It's honestly easier to get the images digitally from Comixology or even ComicVine. But, you can't argue with the results a GOOD scanner will give you. Look at this picture of the Felker clan! Pretty snazzy, huh?

2. Open the photo in your favorite paint program and check things out.

The next thing you'll want to do is open the photo in your favorite paint program. Some people use the default program that came with Windows or Mac. Some people use Adobe software. I use the program I use to make my Starbolts webcomic. The program is called paint.net and it's completely free to use. I highly recommend it if you're on a budget!

Once the picture is open, feel free to edit any and all imperfections you can. These could range from nicks on the picture to even ink spots. Somehow a lot of my family's really old photos like the one I shared today have ink spots. It's so weird. But, they can be easily removed.

Removing them can be a little tricky. What I like to do is select a color near the imperfection using the color select tool and fill it all in. Then I select the area I edited and blur it a little so that it looks neat.

If the picture is too dark or bright, you can simply play with the contrast tools and edit as you see fit.

3. Posting online.

Once the photograph is edited, you can do many things. Save it to an external hard drive or post it online. Either way, it will help make certain that this picture is never lost if your main hard drive crashes. It's always a good idea to change out the hard drive every few years, anyway. Save everything to a flash drive and you're good.

What if you want to share it with the world? Well, that's where several websites come into play. I post the pictures on the major genealogy websites like Ancestry, geni, Familysearch, MyHeritage and WikiTree. Ancestry, Familysearch and Myheritage all give you an option of labeling the photos. WikiTree adds in an option to link the photo to a person's profile. Like this one: Here's Austin Felker's profile on Wikitree: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Felker-441

If you click on one of the photos on WikiTree, you'll see more information on the photo including who all has been tagged. There's also an option to list who is who when you update a photo. You can also post it in the site's genealogist to genealogist forum.

Speaking of labeling things, that brings me to....

4. Labeling.

If you're fortunate to know who is who in the photograph, then the best thing to do is to make a copy of our scan here and then label everyone for your own records. Use the typing option on your paint program and just type in who is who if it's a large group like the Felker clan picture is. I would use red to make it stand out better.

5. Other methods of preservation

You don't have to do all of this with just photos of course. Printing out valuable documents is always an option. I've got a few folders full of documents from both sides of the family carefully tucked away in a safe box. As a comic collector, I know how important it is to keep things in "near mint" condition. So, I keep things in boxes where I know they'll be dry and away from the elements. Just make sure you have the space for everything!!

You also have the option of preserving a physical copy of a photo by creating a duplicate. To accomplish this, you can scan and edit the photo and print it on glossy paper. The photo would be just like it's brand new. I haven't exactly tried it, yet. But, there's no reason why it can't work. You would just need to make sure you have ink.

I've actually done this with a few classic comic book covers so it looked like I had really old comics on my set for my webseries. Naturally, I used Amazing Fantasy #15, the first appearance of Spider-Man. =) Because I TOTALLY have a mint copy of a 60k comic from 1962. Totally! (Yeah, right.)

These are just a few ways to make certain your photos and other genealogical information is not forgotten. I also have many trees on many websites to make sure it isn't lost. WikiTree's main gimmick is to be a repository for everyone's' trees and to make sure it's never lost. Same deal with Geni and FamilySearch. The websites aren't going away and posting information online is incredibly beneficial.  So, if you have a tree online I suggest you share it. If not? Make one. It's a great way to preserve information. And hey....it makes for great cousin bait!

See ya next time!