I follow the "The Armchair Genealogist" blog, written by Lynn Palermo. She writes great articles about the writing process and just finish hosting the Family History Writing Challenge during the month of February.
This week she wrote an article called "Organizing Family Photos in 8 Easy Steps" about how to organize your family photos. We're talking about those paper photos you have either thrown in a box, stored still in their original envelopes, or placed in various non-archival photo albums.
She broke it down into 8 easy steps, which basically are to gather, scan, label & sort, and then organize on the computer. She used a FlipPal scanner, but any scanner could be used. Her suggestion is to do this while watching T.V. The FlipPal works well for this because it is small. I have my flatbed scanner on the coffee table in our living room so I can scan while watching television, too.
What I loved best was what to do with the photos after being scanned. That was my dilemma. They usually went back into the original box and then I would not remember whether I had scanned them before. Sorting the photos into labeled envelopes is just the solution!
Do take a look at her blog post for the complete list and great photos of how she did it!
Copyright © 2011 by Contra Costa County Genealogical Society.
October at CGS (updated)
2 months ago
