Digitizing Photos and Records
- geneal1
- 14 hours ago
- 3 min read
Do you have boxes of family photos, slides, home movies, and negatives? What about old letters and family Bibles?
Converting these items to digital allows you to edit and improve images, then easily share them and attach them to your family tree (online or on your computer). Digital copies also serve as a backup in case of a natural disaster.
If you started researching your family history before computers and the internet became popular, you probably accumulated a lot of paper research notes and correspondence. Digitize these, too, and you can discard or store many of the originals and replace them with searchable files on your computer.
These steps will make the project more manageable.
1. Make an Inventory
Start by listing the items you’d like to digitize: photos (including albums, framed and loose pictures, slides, and negatives), documents, and movies.
Using word-processing software, put all this information in a table with columns for Years, Description, Type (album, prints, slides, negatives, home movies), and Location of Physical Version (box number, room, or closet). You might include the size of negatives (such as 110 or 35mm) and prints (such as 4×6 inches); space to note leave a the folder on your computer or external hard drive where the scanned items live.
You could create a separate inventory of heirlooms, such as letters, family Bibles, diaries, furniture, artwork, books, and clothing. Note where each item is located, such as the room and perhaps a specific shelf, drawer, or box.
Consider organizing your physical pictures, papers, and heirlooms before you digitize them, as that might make them easier to manage in digital form.
2. Triage Items
Next, identify the top-priority items to digitize, such as the oldest or those in the worst condition. In many cases, you might have the only copy that exists, making them a high priority to preserve.
You should prioritize materials that you can easily digitize with the equipment you already have. Items that require large or specialized equipment (such as large-format images, multi-page books, or home movies) could move down your priority list.
Also, consider how difficult it would be to replace your materials, particularly records. Birth and death certificates may be hard or expensive to order from archives. However, copies of federal census pages are easily accessible online and probably not worth scanning. (In fact, you’ll probably get a higher-resolution image of the latter from a website.)
3. Gather Your Equipment
Once you know what you need to digitize and the rough order in which you want to digitize them, you’ll need a way to do it! You’ve got a few options for digitizing genealogical materials, ranging from hiring professionals to DIY.
These dedicated professionals are especially helpful if you have items that require specialized equipment. The following services handle many types of media and offer photo-restoration and backup services:
Look for local companies, too, so you can avoid sending your precious photos through the mail.
Home Scanners
Depending on the size of your collection, a dedicated scanner may be well worth the investment. Scanners generally connect to your desktop computer or laptop, and some include photo-editing or organization software.
When shopping for a scanner, consider the type and volume of media you need to scan. There are several general types of scanners on the market:
Flatbed scanners: Open the lid, place your photo or document on the glass platen, and scan with the push of a button. Some even support slides and negatives; manufacturers also make dedicated scanners for those media.
Photo scanners: Built specifically for photos, these can process larger volumes more quickly than flatbed scanners.
Portable scanners: Allow you to take your digitization on the go to an archive or a relative’s house.
Some scanners have auto-feed functions, which can considerably speed up the scanning process. Place a stack of documents, and the scanner will digitize them one at a time in sequence.
Contact me if I can be of any assistance to you in your genealogy journey! My email is geneal@laurel.lib.ms.us, and my phone number is 601-428-4313, ext 111. Voicemail is available.
Comments