Part 1
Scanning old family photos is simple and inexpensive, and once you have digital copies, you can easily restore, organize and share them. You can add photos to your genealogy software and your family history projects. You also will want to upload them to FamilySearch Memories to preserve them indefinitely. You can have prints made for display while keeping the originals safely stored away out of the light. Just in case something should happen to an original photo, digital copies in multiple locations serve as a backup.
The first step is to get the equipment necessary. You will need a computer and a scanner to scan your old family photos. A Mac or Windows computer will work with most scanners. Even low-end computers are now powerful enough to handle most photo-editing tasks. The only problem you may encounter is running out of storage space. Scanned photos take up a lot of space so you might need extra memory and hard disk storage space. You do have the option to get an external hard drive or store the photos on “the cloud” which includes FamilySearch Memories or sites like Flickr.
Basic flatbed scanners will likely meet your needs for digitizing photographs and documents. Some will include negative scanning and slides. Most multifunction printer, the devices that print, copy and scan, do not perform as well as a standalone scanner. Most scanners come with basic software to use, but you might also want to use Google’s Picasa.
Wearing white cotton gloves to handle old photos is a good idea, but can make it really difficult to pick up the printed photos. It is fine to not wear gloves, but you should wash your hands with soap and water, rinse them well and handle the photos and negatives by only touching the edges. If there are paper clips, rubber bands, old boxes or staples, remove those from the pictures. If there is a magnetic album and you can get the photos out without damaging them, remove them from that type of album. Try to keep the photos in order because that may help you identify them later.
Part 2 continues next week.
For more information, contact Shanna Jones (435) 628-4900 shannasjones@msn.com