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Protecting Family Documents, a Genealogist’s Most Precious Treasure
By Kathy Jones-Kristof | June 26, 2008
Genealogists spend most of the time looking for old documents, however we should spend a little time preserving not only our historical documents, but also the ones we produce in our daily lives. If a disaster happened in your life today, would your papers and photos be safe or would you be devastated by the loss of all your research, in addition to your insurance papers, property inventory, tax records and birth certificates—everything you need to start your legal life over again? We all need to take the time right now to preserve our paper treasures not only from disasters, but also for the future.
Start by pulling together your documents, old and new, and your most important photos. For me, these are my oldest photos. Everyday photos need to be preserved, too, but it’s overwhelming for most people to do everything at once. I’ll discuss those photos later is this post. For now, let’s deal with documents and old photos.
Everything should be scanned. The prices of scanners are low enough that almost everyone can afford to add a good quality scanner to their home computer setup. If you have a lot of documents and photos to preserve, a scanner is an essential expenditure. And for most people, it will be less expensive to buy a scanner now than to attempt to recover the lost paperwork of a lifetime after a disaster.
Scan your documents and photos at a dpi (dots per inch) resolution that’s high enough to be printed clearly, which requires 150 dpi for black and white documents. For color photos, 300 dpi is standard for good print images. I scan historical documents at 300 dpi, also. This gives me more to work with if I have to enlarge script that’s difficult to read.
After each item is scanned, make certain the image is good, then save it. I use a JPEG format, which can be read by most programs. Check your genealogy program to see what format it accepts as links because you’ll want to link historical documents and photos to people in your Family File. I keep my saved scans in an image storage program. You can also use an image processing program or just a regular file folder on your computer desktop. After scanning and storing your image, add a description or caption. Examples:
Documents:
Home Ins Policy Pg 1-2008
Westfall-Black Marriage VA 1802
Photos:
Weston, Mary E Roanoke VA 1881
Put in as much information as space allows in the description field. It should answer what, where and when. Many photo storage programs allow for an extended description. Take advantage of this to record everything you know about the image. By utilizing this expanded description field, I was able to use my image storage program like a Digital Scrapbook. I burned the file on CDs and sent a copy to everyone in my family.
After scanning and cataloguing your most valuable documents, backup your files. My motto is you can never have too many backups in too many places. Remember, backups can fail and can be destroyed in disasters. Subscribe to an online storage company to keep your backups safe from fires and floods. Or burn multiple backups onto DVDs or CDs. Keep one copy in your safe-deposit box, one at work and mail another copy to a relative or friend in another state. Send them a new copy every month or so. This way if your home or community is destroyed, at least one backup copy should survive.
And when you’re making those backups, include your Family File from your genealogy program. You don’t want to lose that information, either!
After scanning and backing up your files, you need to store your original documents and photos safely. I put mine, along with my first-day issue of the Elvis stamp, into archival plastic sleeves. These can be purchased at office supply stores, Wal-Mart or online. Be sure to use Acid-Free, Archival Quality plastic. After they’re protected in the archival sleeves, put them in a waterproof container, such as watertight Ziploc bags, and lay them flat in a fireproof safe. Everyday documents, such as insurance, property inventory and mortgage papers, should also be protected in waterproof bags and placed in the safe. It’s your choice whether to use archival sleeves on these. I don’t consider my everyday papers to be historical documents, so I don’t use the sleeves.
Although I live in an area where floods are not an issue but wildfires are, I place my documents and photos in waterproof bags because most safes are not waterproof. As a result, my documents could be damaged by water from a fire hose. If you live in a flood area, you should double encase your documents and photos in waterproof containers—the best you can find. That way if one fails, you have a backup. Then they should still be placed in a fireproof safe because anyone can be victim to a home fire. Bolt your safe securely to the framing of your house so it won’t be washed away in a fast-moving flood.
If you decide not to use a safe, place your documents and photos in a stiff-sided box or briefcase—something not used for anything but this one purpose. Mark the container so everyone knows what’s in it.
Now, where are you going to put your safe, box or briefcase? Old documents and photos should never be stored anywhere that’s hot or humid. That rules out the attic and basement, which is the first place to flood anyway. The best area is the second story of your home. Only have one story? If you’re using a safe, buy one of the small, portable ones and put it up as high as possible. Do the same with a box or briefcase. Any of these three can be easily taken with you in an evacuation.
Okay, now you know how to save your important documents and oldest photos. Now we’ll take care of those everyday photos. Don’t panic at the sight of that big stack. All you have to do is sort them, scan, save and store. Before you know it you’ll be done, the photos will be safe and you’ll never have to worry again about losing them in a disaster.
I poured all my photos out in the middle of the floor and started by sorting them into groups. You’ll have to decide on your own categories based on your life experiences.
First Group, Family and Friends.
Second Group, Pets. I selected the best photos for each pet. The remainder I didn’t scan.
Third Group, photos of our house as it was being built. These I didn’t scan.
Fourth Group, tossed in the Recycle Bin. These included:
Photos from vacations that had no people in them and I couldn’t recognize the location, were boring or out of focus.
People that were out of focus, but only if I had good photos of those same people.
Neighbors I didn’t remember or didn’t like.
Wild animals in my parents’ yard (I hope my mother doesn’t read this).
People from the office where I used to work.
Wow, sorting helped a lot! Many photos were recycled and the ones not being scanned could immediately be placed in plastic bags, put in photo boxes and stacked in a storage closet. The remaining pictures were stacked on my desk. I selected ten to work on at a time and wrote on the back of each its description and date. After that, they were treated just like the old photos in the first part of this post—scan, save and store. The only difference was this time the pictures went into an archival photo album before being placed in a plastic bag and the safe.
You can make this a family project. Everyone old enough to scan photos has a set number to do each week. You write the description on the back of the photo. Your children and spouse do the scanning and type in the captions. You take care of the expanded descriptions. Before you know it, everything will be done.
That’s it. Your documents and photos are as safe as they can get. The only thing you have to do is add new items to your files as they come in, delete expired documents and shred the corresponding originals. Remember to backup your files and mail a copy to Aunt Ophelia in Poughkeepsie every month. She’ll like it that you remember her and you’ll like it that your papers are safe. Just tell her not to keep the CD in the attic, basement or over the stove and everything will work out perfectly. So don’t wait even one more day before you start preserving your treasured documents and photos. Until next time, keep out of the path of fires, floods and political candidates!
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Topics: All Levels of Genealogists |
June 26th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
[...] naomi wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThe prices of scanners are low enough that almost everyone can afford to add a good quality scanner to their home computer setup. If you have a lot of documents and photos to preserve, a scanner is an essential expenditure. … [...]
June 27th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Very good information. I like your sorting technique.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Hi, Kathy,
I’d like to invite you and your readers to join us for the next Scanfest on Sunday, July 27th from 11 AM to 2 PM, PDT. Think of it like a quilting bee for genealogists who need to scan their precious family photos and documents.
For more information, see my posts about Scanfest on my blog: http://ancestories1.blogspot.com/search/label/Scanfest
Hope you’ll join us!
Miriam
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:43 pm
[...] bookmarks tagged ophelia Protecting Family Documents, a Genealogist’s Mos… saved by 2 others lilscrappy bookmarked on 07/02/08 | [...]