What Should I Do With Old Family Photos? (Part 1)

“Family is the most important thing in the world.” – Princess Diana

One of the questions that you might ask yourself when doing genealogy is, “What should I do with all of my old family photos?” Here are a few suggestions…

1.     Gather all the photos that you can! (and label them)

Photos and genealogy go hand in hand. Finding a ‘new’ photo of an ancestor that you’ve been researching is akin to finding gold! Ask relatives for copies of photos and search through photos that you may have as well. If you receive photos from relatives or if you don’t know who someone is in a certain photo, be sure to ask and then label the photo. It is always good to be able to match a face with a name J

2.     Scan photos and upload them!

Henry and Caroline Minten, my 4th great-grandparents. 
Photo taken about 1855.
If not for a distant cousin sharing this photo on Ancestry, 
I never would have known
what they looked like.

The next step in preserving photos as a genealogist is to scan hard copies and save them. You can either use a scanner to do this, or an app such as Google Photo Scan. The Google Photo Scan app will have you point the camera of your mobile device at certain points in the photo, which will enhance the picture, and then the photo will be uploaded to your camera roll. While the quality is not equal to using a scanner, it is nice to be able to upload the photo quickly and with ease. After photos are scanned in, you can save them directly to your computer, a flash drive, or a photo storage site, such a Google Photos. It is always a good idea to save your photos in multiple places, this way you will still have them in case of a device breaking or crashing.

3.     Share, share, share

You are not able to upload photos on FamilySearch, yet. Howeve

Laura Wilson, another 4th great-grandmother. Again, if not for a
cousin sharing this photo on Ancestry, I would not know what she
looked like.

r, I would recommend uploading photos to your family tree on Ancestry, or MyHeritage, if you use either of these sites. As long as your tree settings are set as public, others who are searching for the same family members and ancestors will be able to see the photos that you have uploaded and share them to their own tree. This photo sharing aspect of genealogy is one of my favorites. In the past, it was harder to pass photos down equally to children and grandchildren because it was not as easy to make copies and digitization of photos did not exist. It is wonderful to be able to share your photos with others and to find pictures, of your fourth great-grandmother for example, that you never would have seen if you hadn’t had been able to share pictures and view them on sites like Ancestry and MyHeritage.

The next post will focus on damaged photos and how to restore them. Stay tuned!