Documenting Family Collections

I have been busy documenting my family collections. It is fun taking pictures that I can use in writing the book. Years ago I scanned over 1,000 pictures and items, but the quality is so much better now that I want to update at least some of the pictures. As I create books for all of my ancestral lines I will gradually upgrade the pictures and file them with more detailed citations. This time I am creating an inventory of what there is for each line and where it is kept in my office or in other parts of the house. In the process my office is much better organized.

Organization Progress Since Covid 19

Susan Olsen LeBlanc 30 January 2016 I finally unpacked the last three uhaul boxes in my office. What a great feeling that is. That leaves me with a 2'x2' stack of papers from multiple ancestral families that need to be sorted. There are serious documents in there and I can hardly wait to start sorting. This has taken me years to accumulate and then I never had the time to really utilize what was found. This is a must do project before I leave my research to someone else. There are still boxes for other projects: five boxes of family pictures from 1992, ten albums to be redone from magnetic picture albums; about twenty boxes of children's school work to go through; about twenty tubs of my mother's things; postcard collections to be sorted and put into notebooks. This will not all happen right away, but making progress is about moving forward and that is what I am feeling right now! 30 January 2022 Progress made in six years. Stack of papers sorted and filed in tote for next step. Finished ten picture albums now in new albums. Six to go. Finished sixteen boxes of children’s school work. Four to go. Finished fifteen tubs of my mother’s things. Five to go. Finished all postcard collections. Yet to do five boxes of family pictures. That is 27 out of 56 albums, boxes and totes completed. About half way done. Most of this was done after Covid 19 came about. I gave some of our children their picture albums and school work!

Seeing Our History in Pictures and Momentos

I made individual photo albums for each of our six children. Recently I transferred the photos from the magnectic/sticky albums, scanned them all and gave them to the kids with a flash drive. Still have three to complete. I also went through all of their school things that I kept and did the same. They are delighted to have them, I am happy to have those done and now I have more room in my office. I also have family albums covering the same time periods. When Costco had the print your photos get a second set free that was great. I still have five paper boxes to go through and four boxes for my middle son. Covid did me the favor of providing me many hours at home. I now see my children lives more clearly and the grandchildren see their parents history. Actually on the flash drives are the collections of all the children. So they have their own and all of their siblings. Our mother did the same for the four of us and I borrowed each of the others and scanned their albums. When I did my parent’s albums each of us choose our favorites and then I gave each one a complete set of the favorites. We had a nice gathering and enjoyed tagging our favorites. We started with forty albums and I condensed them to ten albums.