52 Ancestors Week 40: Preservation

 From Amy Johnson Crow: The theme for Week 40 is "Preservation." Not only is October Family History Month in the US, it's also Archives Month. What artifact or story are you working to preserve? Of course, there are other things that can be preserved, like food. Be creative with this theme!

The comic is in near-mint condition, actually...

    Preserving things is important and as a comic collector I've preserved many comic books in the most environmentally unfriendly way I could think of. I put them in plastic polybags, put a board on them and then place them in a cardboard box. Other people go that extra mile and put them in long boxes and store them someplace dry.  Preserving comics is one thing. How do you preserve things on the genealogical front?

Such an adorable baby. ;)

    In my family albums, I have many pictures like this one that I want to keep. That's me with my grandma Ollie and grandpa Marco. Aren't I adorable? The picture is the only one I have of Marco and I and as a result it's very special to me. It's probably more special than even his "Coming to America" photo with his parents, Vincenzo and Maria. I'm not saying that one isn't important. They ALL are. It's just that he died when I was four and I don't really have any memories of him and as a result pictures of me with nonno are extremely rare.

    With all that in mind, how do I preserve this photograph? The original is in a photo album on a shelf in my parents' den. It's high up so none of the elements or even furry creatures can dare get at it. It's good right where it is and the album itself is in fantastic condition. However, steps were made to take this and other photos I love into the digital age!

    When I reviewed comic books on YouTube, I would scan various comic books using our wireless Canon scanner/printer. It's a very handy device as images were beamed directly from the scanner to my computer where I would crop out the images I needed and straightened out the pages in a paint program. Believe me I straightened out a LOT of pages. Word to the wise: Always make sure you have the image straight before you push that scan button! That and scanning a hard bound trade paperback of your favorite storyline is tricky. Oh so tricky.

I'll give you one guess when this was taken.
Hint: Look at grandma Ollie's clothes!

    Of course I didn't just scan comic books back in the day. I've scanned my fair share of photographs and now they are in a special genealogy folder on my computer. In the folder, I have scans of everything from documents to photos and news articles I've found online or scanned. 

    There's quite a bit of information. How do I prevent all of it from getting lost? That's a good question. You never know when your hard drive will crash and your motherboard will just stop working. What do you do then? Luckily, I use a keychain-sized Sandisk jump drive. It's got a decent amount of space and I already use it for my Starbolts webcomic and various animations I've made. Not bad, right?

    You can also preserve the images by uploading them to your favorite genealogical website like WikiTree or family tree program. Storing images on a data cloud is a good idea, too. The possibilities are endless!

    I'm all set when it comes to saving images and making sure very important pictures and documents are saved. Remember those boxes of genealogical gold I have? Well, they're stored in dry places and sealed up much like my comic collection. Nothing can get at them and various docs and photos inside have been scanned. Preserving pictures is fun and I always keep in mind what I've learned as an avid collector of the funny pages. It's hard work and it's worth it for when relatives what it look at a various picture.

    What if the reverse happens? What if a relative of yours e-mails you a picture of your ancestors. How do you preserve that? That's easy! When I got this picture of Marco Ferraiolo and Caterina Coppola earlier this year from a cousin I saved it to my computer, uploaded it to WikiTree and saved it to my jump drive.

    If you're like me, you're going to want a physical copy of the photograph. Getting one is pretty easy. Just print it out on a piece of paper and be done with it. Yeah. You could do it that way. Or you could get really creative and have it look completely brand new! 

    When I was reviewing comics, I had a background full of classic comic book covers such as Avengers #1 and Amazing Fantasy #15. I clearly didn't have those comics. If I did, I think I would have REALLY kept those comics in mint condition!  I didn't just print them out, either.  There is a type of paper you can use which mimics a photograph. If you have enough ink, you can print out an old photograph from your computer and it will look like a real photograph guaranteed! Technology is amazing!

    These are just some of the tools you can use to preserve a document. The one thing I suggest you don't do is laminate something. You think polybags are environmentally unsafe? What about those laminated things? Avoid laminating objects like the plague. If you want to save articles, scan them and save them to your computer or cloud. There are just so many options available. You can even e-mail photos to yourself and save it in your inbox. Just change the password every once in a while.

    Genealogy in the 21st century has come a long way and it's always a good idea to adapt to the current methods of saving documents. That way things will never be lost. And if you have an object that you want to keep safe store those in a safe spot or display them in a spot where no creature can break it. Looking at you, cats of the world!

See ya next time!