I recently discovered a cousin who has an interest in family history. As we shared images of photographs, I was reminded of a few things when making digital images of photographs:

  • scan/photograph the front and back of each photograph–even if they are blank (be consistent in doing this so that you always know you did it)
  • identify any individuals whose identity you personally know–as soon as possible (you may forget)
  • start work on identifying unknown individuals as soon as you can
  • organize photographs as soon as possible
  • back up the images you made–and not just on a flash drive–remote storage is key

The important thing is not to just digitize and quit.

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3 Responses

  1. Also, add the date, the location and if it was an event. If you don’t know an exact date, add a date range. e.g. July, 2023, or 1980-1982, Uncle John’s house, the Doe family reunion.

  2. A good reminder to scan the back even if nothing is written on it. I was able to organize several photos together due to the common printing code on the back. One of the photos had writing on the back, but the others were blank. It certainly helped in identification & dating of the photos without writing.

  3. I’ve just been studying a series of picture postcards, al printed by the same photographic studio,. I was able to get a rough date f when they were bought – not the date when the photo was taken- from the changing form of the address on the back, You need to realise that people commissioned copies of family photos, often years after the original negative was made. This is especially true of people om the move,

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