Here’s a quick quiz: When is the last time you put a photo into a family album? Do you know where your birth certificate is? And, if asked, could you name your great-grandparents on both sides?
If you’re like a lot of time-pressed people today, your answers are likely to be “Don’t know, “Nope” and “You’re kidding,” not necessarily in that order.
True, organizing family stories, heirlooms and images into a cohesive record for the next generation may seem like a daunting task, but it’s a worthwhile journey.
“It’s a self-revealing process as well as helping individuals see how they fit in the big picture,” says Daniel Kane, Chicago-based genealogist and owner of Extended Family Ties.
To get started, Kane recommends families “preserve what you’ve got and gather what’s missing. If you haven’t already done so, it’s a good idea to start writing your own biography and move outward in concentric circles (siblings, aunts, etc.) from there. If you’ve got an aging relative you haven’t taken the time to interview and record, don’t put that off. There’s a saying that when someone dies, you lose a library, and it’s true.”
Kane says creating a paper trail of your own life (and your nuclear family’s) and storing it in safe area is the first priority. “I keep a drawer in my filing cabinet with my life abbreviated in a series of manila folders,” he says. In them are everything from birth certificates, marriage records and such to school and job records. “I keep a few key photos in there, too, and an archival pen handy to scrawl important notes on the backs.”
With your abbreviated family record filed in safe storage, it’s time to pull those piles of photos, old letters, home movies and other memorabilia into some semblance of order. Because editing all the material into digestible formats (albums, scrapbooks, CDs, etc.) takes time, just getting everything into one area so you can inventory what your got, should happen first. Gathering materials also will allow you to repackage records safely, insuring that they won’t deteriorate.
“Attics and basements–often the places where family records end up–can be the worst environment for their safe storage,” says Allison Stacy, editor of Family Tree Magazine.
Instead, store materials in low-moisture, moderate environments where temperatures do not widely fluctuate. Archival storage for photographs, film and important written materials also is recommended. “The main thing to understand when you talk about archival storage,” says Gene Amoroso, marketing manager for archival product firm PrintFile, “is that you’re talking about putting photos, papers and films in containers, albums or enclosures that are free of acid and lignin (substances found in wood fibers and inks that will damage photos and film over time).”
Plastic’s OK, as long as it’s an “inert” plastic such as polyester, polypropylene or polyethylene–that does not emit damaging gases, Amoroso says. (“Bad” plastics would be anything in the vinyl families.) “Watch out for anything with that strong, plastic odor,” he adds. “Old slide and photo sleeves used to be made of these.”
Other archiving issues to consider include:
Filing photos and records: Metal file cabinets are good, as long as the finish is baked enamel (you want to avoid rust and paint fumes). Wood, even cedar chests, is not a good choice for long-term storage because it contains acids. Also, newspaper clippings are highly acid and so is a lot of ballpoint pen ink.
“If you’ve got photos mixed with newspaper clippings, separate them, and choose acid-free pens when you write in photo albums and on photos,” Amoroso advises. To de-acidify clips and ballpoint scrawls, you can purchase de-acidification sprays and archival photo cleaners.
CD storage: Family historians must keep abreast of changing technology to properly store digital photographs and magnetic tape (audio and visual) recordings. Storing digital photographs on your computer’s hard drive can be risky, but downloading them onto a CD isn’t foolproof either. A lot can depend on the quality of the recordable CD, as well as how you treat it.
“Leave one of your audio CDs in the sun for a little while, and it’ll be OK, but leave a recordable CD in the sun and the dye can degrade,” says Fred Byers, IT specialist with the National Institute of Standards and Technology. (See the Council on Library and Information Resources excellent info on care and handling of CD’s at www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub121abst.html or www.itl.nist.gov/div895careforedisc.)
One good tact to take? Print the most important digital photographs you’ve taken on archival-quality paper and store those the same way you would photos printed from film.
Video storage: “Digitize your collections,” says Janice Simpson, managing director of the Association of Moving Image Archivists (www.amianet.org), “but never destroy your original film or magnetic tapes!” Those should get stored in a cool, dry environment, between 60 to 65 degrees and approximately 25 percent humidity.
Beyond this, Jim Wheeler, an archivist specializing in video, audio and tape says:
– Gold CDs are the best media for archiving audio. (www.mitsuicdr.com)
– Hard Disc Drives (HDDs) are now a good storage medium for both audio and video. (Until recently, HDDs didn’t have the storage capacity for video archiving.)
With your records in safe haven, the job of piecing family stories together can proceed. Photo and scrapbook albums, CDs, documentary-style home videos and written pamphlets are all popular methods of passing the stories on.
A tip from Ann Stier, a Petersburg, Ill.-based family historian: Don’t just present the Kodak moments. “Sad memories are important too,” Steir says.
Michele Gerbrandt, founding editor for Memory Makers, the bible of the booming $2.5 billion scrapbook industry, agrees. “Journaling is extremely important. Your words have to tell future generations the stories your photos can’t.”
