Do you have a patriot, farmer, civil war soldier, or Mayflower passenger in your family tree? You may be eligible to join an American lineage society in honor of your ancestor. And, the America 250! Celebration is the perfect time to investigate old family stories and discover those ancestors who are recognized in the many lineage societies. 

I have to admit it was exciting to see my son and grandsons marching in the Fort Vancouver Veteran’s Day Parade in full colonial dress with the Sons of the American Revolution, Fort Vancouver Chapter, Washington State. As new members, they had to borrow the frocks and gear, but the boys are already asking how to learn more about their Patriot Jacob Brown.

Lineage societies offer opportunities for research and study of historical events and culture. Many groups actively participate in service projects for veterans, active duty military, students, and the community. 

The Hereditary Society Community of America maintains a public list of over 300 lineage societies with links to more information and eligibility. You don’t have to be related to someone rich, famous, or even legendary. Ordinary people who were early settlers or worked in various industries are included in a wide range of organizations dedicated to honoring and studying early generations.

Many groups have a Registrar or Secretary available to assist with questions and applications. Professional genealogists can also help provide research, compile documentation, and complete appropriate paperwork. The Association of Professional Genealogists is a good place to find a certified or accredited researcher.

The post Now is the Time to Celebrate America 250! appeared first on The Family Curator.

Are you ready for a different kind of family history challenge? If you’re like me, your home may hold more than a few inherited items from your parents, grandparents, or other relations.

Several years ago I dutifully organized a scattered hodge-lodge of my grandmother’s old photos. Each cabinet card or snapshot was scanned, front and back, before the original was carefully placed in archival sleeves and boxes. 

At the time, I hadn’t thoroughly investigated other material in the collection. I mostly used the scanned photos for presentations and writing projects. Much later, after uncovering letters, ephemera, and other artifacts, it was possible to read between the lines of a photo caption or look beyond the black-and white snapshot and uncover the photo’s real story.

The brain is a fantastic computer, able to make connections with seemingly unrelated random information. The image and caption on a small carte de visite photograph were clues to an enigma in the Family Bible Record. One thing led to another and another, and a previously unknown child could be added to the family tree. 

• Revisiting old photos, letters, and artifacts can shed light on genealogy brick walls. 
• The address on a wartime ration book may fill in an ancestor’s timeline.
• An inscribed hymnal could be evidence of a family’s ethnic identity.

A different kind of family history challenge

When did you take a good long look at your old family photos and artifacts? Do you have one or two items with tantalizing information?

Maybe you have a photo with a first name, or identification like “Grandma’s sister,” but you haven’t yet narrowed down which of the five sisters is the most likely.

The tantalizing information could be written on a photo, a letter, or an inscription on a silver baby cup. 

Challenge yourself to “fill-in-the-blanks” using your research and analytical skills. 

Here are a few ideas to jump-start those inherited connections:

• Think carefully about your inherited family collection. Make a list to help jog your memory. What items do you have from the same family, same time period, same locality? Carefully examine those items for more information.
• Does your item and clue logically fit the time frame? If you have a good idea of the family group, try make a timeline of events and people with ages. 
• Do family stories add further information? Write down the story and ask other family members for more details.
• Why is the item in your collection? The provenance could help identify the original owner or date.

Exploring connections between inherited items and family lore may lead you to discover new information or confirm tentative theories. Spend time with your collection. Think carefully about the people, places, and stories reflected in material objects.

Free Webinar to Explore Home Sources

Join me as I explore the clues in my family collection, and find ideas for working with your own heirlooms in “Secrets in the Attic: Break Down Brick Walls with Home Sources,” available for FREE viewing on Friday, May 8, 2020 as part of “One Free Webinar a Day” from Legacy Family Tree Webinars. I’m excited to be included in Legacy’s month-long webinar line-up during this time of stay-at-home self-isolation, and hope you can join us May 8 and May 23. No need to pre-register; to view, just click on the yellow bar at the top of the page at Legacy Family Tree Webinars: Click here to watch today’s free webinar. (Every day in May – a free webinar!

Each day throughout May, Legacy Family Tree Webinars will unlock one webinar from its membership site for free viewing. That’s 31 free hours of genealogy learning! If you like what you see, consider becoming a Legacy Family Tree Webinars member to receive new webinars each week. Learn more and sign up to join.

I hope you return to Legacy Family Tree Webinars throughout the month to view the featured  free webinars and more. And, join me again on Saturday, May 23 for another free webinar, “Seven Steps to Manage Digital Files.” You’ll find practical ideas for organizing and controlling your digital assets.

Disclosure: I am an presenter and affiliate for Legacy Family Tree Webinars and receive a small commission when you use my link. Thank you for supporting TheFamilyCurator.com

The post Break Down Genealogy Brick Walls With Home Sources appeared first on The Family Curator.

Inheriting the family legacy of photos, letters, papers, and memorabilia is often a mixed blessing. What to save? What to toss? How to archive and process a family collection?

Learn the foundations of practical family archiving this summer at the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP) in “Family Archiving: Heirlooms in the Digital Age.” Students from throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico have brought their archiving challenges to past sessions and returned home ready to organize, digitize, and archive a variety of different collections.

Seats are still available in this hand-on workshop style course only offered at GRIP in alternate years. I love teaching at GRIP and enjoy the collegiality of the “summer camp” atmosphere at La Roche College. The classrooms, dorms, and cafeteria are conveniently located so that it’s easy to meet-up with new (and old) friends and talk genealogy outside the classroom too.

Three additional instructors will join me for “Family Archiving” in July 2020: 

• Shelley Ballenger Bishop is a professional genealogy researcher and writer specializing in Ohio research, as well as strategies for finding and preserving ancestor stories.
• Pamela Stone Eagleson, CG® is a researcher, writer, and educator from Maine who works with family artifacts and holds degrees in history and museum studies.
• Sierra Green is an archivist at the Detre Library & Archives, where she is engaged in archival processing and reference services in addition to her work in public and educational programming.

As genealogists we don’t want to toss anything that might help identify kinship or help us better understand our ancestors’ lives. But, as family members, we often have limited time and resources available to organize and archive boxes family history materials. “Family Archiving” offers researchers of all skill levels guidance in understanding, preserving, and incorporating family collections in legacy family history projects.

I hope you will consider joining us July 19-24 for “Family Archiving: Heirlooms in the Digital Age.”  Registration for GRIP 2020 is now open with seats available.

• Read the full class program for “Family Archiving” HERE
• Learn more about GRIP and REGISTER HERE
• Please feel free to send me an email with any questions about the course

Read about past course highlights:

Getting a GRIP on Preserving Family Archives – 2016

Family Archiving at GRIP 2018

The post Join Us for Family Archiving Hands-On at GRIP 2020 appeared first on The Family Curator.

Are you looking for summertime opportunities to advance your genealogical education? I am honored to once again join the faculty for the July 19-24 Session of the Genealogical Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP) where I’ll be teaching “Family Archiving: Heirlooms in the Digital Age” with instructors Shelley Ballenger Bishop, Pam Stone Eagleson CG, and Sierra Green.

Registration opens Wednesday, 5 February for the 20 different courses offered this summer in three separate sessions of the Genealogical Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP) at La Roche College campus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

Sessions will be offered June 21 to 26, July 6 to 10, and July 19 to 24. Each week has a unique set of courses.

Since 2012, GRIP has brought together students and instructors for five days of intensive genealogical study on methodology, resources, skills, and problem-solving.

“Family Archiving,” offered only July 19-24, will feature guidance for individual family historians and professionals seeking to understand, preserve, and share legacy family collections. The lecture / workshop format gives students a hands-on opportunity to practice preservation, digitizing, and archival skills throughout the week using original artifacts and material culture.

Learn more about “Family Archiving: Heirlooms in the Digital Age”

Register for GRIP

Read the full GRIP schedule

GRIP is one of the premiere genealogy institutes in the United States offering intensive instruction in a variety of subjects for genealogists of all skill levels. Affordable tuition and on-campus room-and-board plans make GRIP a popular choice for summer education.

The post Get Ready for GRIP Pittsburgh appeared first on The Family Curator.

Most people think of resolutions and diets in January of a new year. Genealogists think about organizing their files and research.

Since moving houses last spring, I’ve been working through files and boxes to relabel, rehouse and rethink some of my earlier organizing strategies. 

I’ve discovered that I need better access to items I use frequently, such as interesting artifacts for teaching and blog photos. Some other materials, like family letters and papers, need to be scanned in groups so that I can work with the information in my personal genealogy research.

Overall, my new Family Archive closet is working out well, although I do have an overflow to two other storage areas! Maybe I need another round of sort and scan, or an interested family member to work with me on a few projects.

Advice from the Archive

Here are a few favorite tips from my original Family Archive: 

1. Standardized Storage Boxes

Use multiples of standard box sizes. This is probably my favorite archiving tip of all. My first purchase of acid-free archival boxes included a mix of different shapes and sizes. I wanted to see what worked best for me. It was immediately obvious that the boxes that fit my storage shelves were the easiest to handle. Mixed up shapes and sizes are more difficult to store. Now I buy gray document case cases and 12 x 15-inch drop front flat boxes that stack easily and store all kinds of papers. I like shoebox-size boxes for photos and artifacts and large acid-free archival bankers boxes for items waiting to be processed. Choose a size that fits whatever you need to preserve and that fits your storage area. (Find links to many items on my Shop page and also at Amazon and archival suppliers.)

2. “Just the Right Size” Document Cases 

Document cases are like mini-file cabinets. Archives and libraries use them to house papers for easy access. The boxes fit neatly back on a shelf in the climate-controlled archive room and can be retrieved on a cart for researchers as needed. At home, document cases are useful to organize and house family papers, but the wide seven-inch boxes can be heavy to move off a top shelf. Narrow boxes less than five-inches will organize a small collection, but I’ve found the five-inch width document case is “just right” for most of my papers. 

3. Archival Plastic Label Holders

Yellow sticky notes, tape, or glue are never a good thing for preservation storage, but every box needs a label. Oh, how I like these little label holders that stick on the side of my archival boxes. Box contents can be listed on the acid-free card and easily inserted into the plastic sleeve. When files are rearranged, it’s easy to change labels with a new card. 

4. Coated Wire Shelves

My Family Archive includes papers, photos, and all kinds of artifacts. I have clothing on padded hangers inside Tyvek garment bags, boxes with textiles, photo albums, oversize documents, rolled photographs, film, and more. It doesn’t all fit in one space. I keep my “active” files, the letters or photos I’m currently sorting for scanning, in the most accessible storage space which I a closet in my office. To maximize storage shelving, my husband helped me measure and install coated wire shelving that almost exactly fits the closet. The shelves are moveable and the air circulates around the boxes so I know they aren’t sitting on an old wooden closet shelf that might cause problems from the acidity of the wood. Wire shelf systems are available at The Container Store, Home Depot, and Lowe’s.

5. LED Lighting

A small worktable inside the closet adds a place to hold items or boxes when I need to find something quickly. An under-counter LED light mounted on the shelf above the table makes it easy to see inside the closet’s diim light. Simple, but effective.

Do you have a favorite tip from your own Family Archive? Leave a comment below and share your ideas with other family curators. 

Disclosure: Thank you for supporting The Family Curator website by shopping with the affiliate links on this site. There’s no extra cost to you, and your support helps keep this website free to all readers. Read full Disclosure.

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Over 75 years ago, Mary Levenick photo-chopped her first family Christmas card collage. Inspired by the traditional German Advent calendar with tiny windows opening to surprise images, Mary adapted a colorful calendar, cutting away a portion of the scene to reveal a photograph of the Levenick family, parents Mary and Maynard “Lev” with son Maynard, Jr. and daughter Marylani. 

The Levenicks were stationed in post-World War II Germany where Lev helped keep funds flowing in the Finance Corps and Mary explored Heidelberg with her friend Beatrice Patton, wife of General George S. Patton. A local photo processing shop set up a copy stand to photograph Mary’s original and used the negative to make multiple prints she could send to friends and family. 

Born in Austria-Hungary before World War I, Mary immigrated to Chicago with her parents in 1916 but never lost her love of European culture, especially German Christmas traditions. Mary’s personalized Weinachts Adventskalender became her trademark card, and friends took note if the card was late or had gone missing in the mail.

Mary was always a great correspondent, and eventually the wonders of the mimeograph machine made it possible to send a holiday letter to the growing Christmas card list. She never tried to sugar-coat family life, and was great storyteller in short vignettes. 

When the family returned stateside to their home in Arlington, Virginia, the advent holiday card continued. Handwritten notes explained Lev’s absence, “Lev is in Korea,” and the arrival of the youngest son “This year we are five.” 

From new quarters in Japan, from the Presidio in San Francisco, and finally from their retirement home in Southern California, Mary snipped photos, trimmed the calendar, and created a new card each year. Some cards show individual faces peeking out of the calendar windows. Other cards feature a group shot of the entire family as part of the Christmas scene, or different photos strategically placed throughout the design. 

As the Levenick’s address list grew longer, so did the number of holiday cards they received. Mary displayed the cards in a shoebox covered with Christmas paper and spent many late nights writing return letters to old friends.

Millennials Keep Greeting Cards Alive

Amercans in the digital age are sending a lot less mail through the postal service each year. Nearly 58,000 first-class stamped envelopes were sent in 2018, compared to 103,500 letters sent in 2000 (USPS Data).

One kind of mail is still going strong, however. The luxury greeting card industry with cards from Papyrus, Etsy and small letterpress companies has found a market with millennials looking to connect with people at an analog level, according to The Atlantic. Personalized photo cards remain popular, especially during the holidays.

The holiday mail our family receives has changed over the years from mostly printed holiday-theme cards to nearly all custom photo cards of family and friends. But no one has yet tried to replicate Mary Levenick’s family advent calendar. 

Creating a Christmas Card Timeline

In clearing out the family home, we saved many of my mother-in-law’s Christmas cards and letters. Eventually we discovered the Mother Lode of original photo collages carefully “archived” in Army-issue brown manila envelopes and packed away in cupboards and drawers.

Now that we are living in the Levenick’s family home, I’m building a timeline to identify Mary’s 1959 Christmas card. It would have been the family’s first Christmas in their new Pasadena home. None of the originals are dated, but the family photos, clothes, hairstyles, setting, and marginal notes are helping to establish an annual parade of photographs.

The earliest cards show the Colonel (not yet at that rank) with Mary and two youngsters. Next, a new baby. Adults don’t change much from year to year, but children grow fast and teenagers’ hairstyles and clothes change often. I’m using whatever clues I can find to help date the photos.

A Workflow for Scanning Old Christmas Cards

We cleared away the turkey and trimmings after Thanksgiving and covered the table with a clean tablecloth to set up the advent calendars in a rough timeline. 

Some pictures will take time to study, so rather than leave them out where they might be damaged by handling, light, food or drink, I am scanning each card starting with the suspected oldest in the 1940s to the most recent in the late 1990s. Digital images will help preserve the originals and make it easier to compare photos within the collection.

Here’s my workflow:

• Each original calendar is placed inside a paper folder made from a sheet of 11 x 17-inch acid-free paper folded in half. The paper cover makes a good place for notes and protects the old calendar from wayward fingerprints and dust until I have time to scan the original.
• Calendars are scanned on my Epson V500 Perfection Flatbed Scanner. My scanner set up is fairly basic: color, no corrections or restoration, 600 dpi, TIFF format. At this stage, I am using auto-numbering: lev-cmas-card-01. I am careful to clean the flatbed glass between scans with my Rocket Air Blaster to blow off any drifting glitter or dust.
• Using a No. 2 pencil the filename is lightly written on the back corner of the original calendar.
• After scanning, the original calendar is placed in an archival acid-free poly photo page and added to the ring binder of other pages. An acid-free sticker with the filename is added to the edge binding. 

Following Clues to Date Old Photos

Digital images are a good way to study several calendar images at the same time to work out the timeline and dates.

I’ve already discovered several new clues in old albums and loose snapshots: 

• A wooden box with old black-and-white prints included a snapshot of the family in front of the fireplace in the Pasadena house. The Christmas decorations on the mantle show that it’s obviously a family photo shoot for the annual holiday card, and the edge of the photo helpfully notes the year “1962.” The undated advent calendar collage with the same photograph now has evidence of the date.
• Sometimes cards and letters are Returned to Sender. The postmark helps date the card and letter inside.
• Photo albums include pictures from the same roll of film or taken on the same occasion as photographs used on the Christmas card. Printed dates or other clues in captions help date the images.

A project like this will change as new cards and new information are discovered. Using digital images with sequential filenames keeps the process simple and less complicated. There’s no need to frequently revise and resort the entire filename. Dates can easily be appended to the end of the filename, if desired, without altering the workflow:  lev-cmas-card-01-1964.  Probable dates can be identified with a qualifier such as: lev-cmas-card-01-p1964 (probably 1964) or lev-cmas-card-01-c1964 (about 1964).

This holiday project is a good size for the busy season and will be fun to share with the entire family. My goal is to assemble Mary’s cards and letters in chronological order and use the digital images to create a photo book of Christmas Memories. It’s something I think Mary and Lev’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren will truly enjoy. And maybe inspire their own family holiday card tradition.

Disclosure: Thank you for using the affiliate links on this website to support free access to theFamilyCurator.com. See full Disclosure for more info.

The post This is How I’m Preserving Holiday Memories One Year at a Time appeared first on The Family Curator.

Genealogists know that paper files and digital files are not created equal. Different files need different organizing systems. The Family Curator’s new webinar “Seven Steps to Manage Digital Files” takes a closer look at efficient workflows to organize and manage digital photos and images across computers, cloud services, and mobile devices.

Are you forever looking for the “perfect” system to manage your genealogy research, notes, and digital files? I was too, until I realized the best system was a workflow I could refine and mold for my needs. It may not be “perfect” but it works for me. Maybe it will give you a few ideas for your system!

From capturing images, to importing, to adding metadata, and editing, exporting and sharing, a Digital Asset Management system (DAM) will help bring order to digital file chaos. One step leads to the next in logical order to efficiently organize and manage the assorted digital files used daily by genealogy researchers.

“Seven Steps to Manage Digital Files” is a one-hour webinar now available for viewing in the Legacy Family Tree Webinars library. Webinar access is included with membership, only $49.95 per year for over 1,050 classes in genealogy education.

Seven Steps to Manage Digital Files includes:

• Benefits of a DAM Workflow
• How to Prepare for Digital Asset Management
• Filenaming Tips
• Filenaming Schemes
• Versioning
• What is Non-destructive Photo Editing
• Manual DAM Workflows
• Software Guided DAM Workflows
• Using Adobe Lightroom for Genealogy File Management 

Learn more and view “Seven Steps to Manage Digital Files,” presented for Legacy Family Tree Webinars by Denise May Levenick, author of How to Archive Family Photos.

Disclosure: I am a presenter and affiliate with Legacy Family Tree Webinars. This website uses affiliate links. I appreciate your continued support.

More from The Family Curator at Legacy Family Tree Webinars:

Related Blog Posts:

• “Do You Need More Than One Filename Scheme?”
• “How to Scan Your Photos in Three Easy Steps”
• “7 Practical Reasons to Preserve First, and Scan Second”
  

The post A Look at Seven Steps to Manage Digital Files appeared first on The Family Curator.

History gets personal on Veterans Day. It’s been 100 years since the first Armistice Day commemorated the sacrifices made by so many in The Great War. Again this year, the United States White House has named November as National Veterans and Military Families Month in honor of all veterans, both living and deceased.

Grandfather’s War

I’ve always been humbled by the little red paper poppy my grandfather twisted through the buttonhole of my sweater when I was a small girl. Although he never spoke of his wartime service, I knew my grandfather had served in the Army during World War I. Most days, he raised an American flag on a tall standard outside their Southern California home. His lapel always held a poppy on Memorial Day.

I’ve since learned that he was part of the 314^th Motor Supply Corps, a vital link in the historic St. Mihiel offensive drive on September 12, 1918. His unit furnished supplies to the trenches and moved troops for the Meuse-Argonne Campaign which effectively ended the war with the Armistice on November 11, 1918. He came home from The Great War, but not all his friends were so fortunate.

Wearing a poppy is a connection to my grandparents and to their generation.  Each year, I’m glad to see veterans from groups like the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars with paper poppies and a small can for donations. I’m afraid that one day there won’t be anyone left to sell the little paper flowers.

And, one hundred years after the end of The Great War, I am delighted to see our American commemoration of this holiday extended to honor all veterans during this month. It’s a good time to wear a red poppy.

The Remembrance Poppy Tradition

The Remembrance Poppy or Buddy Poppy is the popular symbol of Remembrance Day celebrated November 11 by many nations of the Commonwealth. The tradition of wearing the bright red flower was inspired by John McRae’s poem “In Flanders Fields” —

In Flanders Fields, by John McRae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

McRae, John. “In Flanders Fields.” via PoetryFoundation.org.

From Armistice Day to Veterans Day

Armistice Day is held annually on November 11 to commemorate the cease of hostilities between the Allied Forces of World War I and Germany. After World War II, Great Britain and Canada and many other countries changed the name to Remembrance Day. On the 11^th hour of the 11^th day, bells solemnly toll during a two-minute silence.

In the U.S., Armistice Day was changed to Veterans Day during the Second World War.  A distinction was made to honor living veterans on November 11, and commemorate veterans who had died while in the service on May 31, Memorial Day. The Buddy Poppy was traditionally worn on Memorial Day as a tribute to soldiers fallen in duty.

Veteran’s groups such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion in the U.S. have assembled and distributed the poppies since shortly after the end of World War I.

Lest We Forget

A few years ago I walked off the elevator at the second floor of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and was struck speechless by a wall of poppies. Larger-than-life poppy-covered panels filled several feet from floor to ceiling at the entrance to the library collections.

A note invited visitors to honor their veteran ancestors by adding a poppy to the wall. Vintage photographs showed the faces of men and women who had served in all branches of the armed forces. It was an honor to remember my grandfather and add his name to the memorial poppy wall.

Holidays evolve with time, and the American Buddy Poppy has become a frequent sight on Veterans’ Day as well as May 31. And, why not? Remembrance Poppies are worn each November in Great Britain, France and Belgium.

With November officially recognized in the United States as National Veterans and Military Families Month it’s a good time to wear a paper poppy in your lapel. And, if you see a veteran offering the red blooms for sale in front of your market, please make a donation and take few poppies to pass along to friends.

Enjoy a moving rendition of McRae’s poem “In Flanders Field” by Scottish-Canadian tenor John McDermott, from his album Remembrance. (Amazon Prime members can listen to “In Flanders Fields” free with their Prime subscription.)

P.S. I’m an Amazon affiliate and this website uses affiliate links. See full Disclosure for more info.

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You aren’t alone if you’re looking at boxes of family photos, letters, or documents and thinking “I’ve got to get this all digitized right NOW!”

Archive First, Scan Second

I talk with many family historians who are panicked about scanning family collections. They want to jump in and scan all their photos and documents immediately, as a first step in working with their newly-inherited boxes of family photos and papers. 

But, they quickly discover that digitizing a large collection is a huge investment in time, energy, and funds. Sometimes, even a small digitizing project grows into something bigger.

Digitizing requires decisions about equipment, organization, filenaming, resolution, backups, and more. Anyone who has started to digitize a large collection will tell you: It’s a project.

Not everyone finishes the task and moves on to organizing, preserving, and cataloging the original physical collection. Instead, the pictures and papers remain in an unlabeled boxes waiting for the next archivist to examine them once again.

Digitizing Family History Before Preserving is Risky

Think about “Big Picture Preservation.”

I like to encourage family curators to step back at look at the big picture before jumping in to digitize. 

Move collections to preservation storage as a first step, instead of trying to scan individual objects. This approach has several advantages:

• Less handling means less risk of damaging originals
• Storing collections by owner retains “original order” and avoids intermingling families
• Damaged items can be identified for conservation
• Toxic materials such as staples, pins, food, or newsprint can be promptly removed or isolated from other items
• Surveying the entire collection will help determine an organizational plan
• Looking at the big picture will show new connections and themes
• AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, preserving first creates Peace of Mind in case you aren’t around to finish the entire project, your collection will be safely stored in archival boxes for the next family historian to pick up where you left off.

Life Happens

Genealogists are keenly aware that life can change in an instant.

Stop and step back from your collection. Think about your overall goals and then create a practical plan to Archive First, Scan Second.

Learn how to develop a plan that includes preserving and digitizing your family collection with my book, How to Archive Family Keepsakes (available at Amazon.com).

If you are ready to move your photos and documents into preservation storage today, check out The Family Curator Shop page for recommended archival storage containers.

Disclosure: Thank you for supporting The Family Curator website by shopping with the affiliate links on this site. There’s no extra cost to you, and your support helps keep this website free to all readers. Read full Disclosure.

If you like this post, please Share!

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Learn about DNA, family archiving, technology, oral history, and genealogy research in three full days of online classes at the upcoming Virtual Genealogical Association 2019 Conference November 1-3. 

The online VGA hosts monthly webinars, an annual virtual conference, networking through active Facebook groups and Special Interest Groups. Membership is an affordable $20 USD per year and includes access to monthly recorded webinars and discount registration to the annual Virtual Conference, as well as other member benefits.

The 2019 conference will include twenty sessions presented over three full days, November 1 through November 3, 8:45 am EST to 6 pm EST each day. Attendees receive access to conference sessions and downloadable handouts for six months. 

I will be presenting “Preserving the Past: Archiving and Digitizing Your Family Keepsakes” on Friday, November 1 at 12 Noon EST. Join me to learn more about preservation and digitizing techniques for family historians. 

Registration closes October 18, 2019. $59 for VGA members; $79 for non-VGA members;

Membership in the Virtual Genealogical Association is one of the best genealogy education bargains today, and a no-stress way to expand your skills and learning. No travel, no hotels, no extra expenses.

Join me the first weekend of November for the Virtual Genealogical Association 2019 Conference. Learn more HERE.

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