I have a huge pile of genealogy stuff, what do I do with it?

By Veronidae (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The title of this post addresses issues that are both theoretical and practical. It also raises issues that deal with deep psychological, cultural and social issues. There is a fine line between collecting and hoarding. I see an extremely huge disparity between what some people consider an excessive amount of genealogy related documents, paper etc. and what others consider acceptable. I have dealt with people who have one small box of documents, photographs and papers and are obsessed with all the clutter. When collections get big enough, we call them libraries and museums.

It is also my experience that few genealogists face the inevitable. We are all going to die, just like all our ancestors. There are two main strategies for coping with the inevitable; pass the work along to someone else or transfer everything to a publicly available repository. The key to success in doing either is to confront the issue long before it becomes a crisis. Unfortunately, there will always be those people who are so possessive and obsessive that they antagonize other family members to the point that no one in the family cares about their work and are glad to get rid of it when they pass away, no matter how "valuable" it may actually be. If you are one of these possessive people, you will not at all be interested in what I have to say on this subject. Genealogists can become as mentally ill as anyone else in the population.

The issue here is both a matter of scale and quality, hence the one box issue I already mentioned. But first a few definitions for clarity and convenience.

Genealogical data can consist of both original documents and copies. Some documents can be a copy and an original at the same time. For example, an original handwritten family group sheet could be a treasured document from an ancestor, or it could be merely a copy of information from an easily available source. Think of a family Bible record written by a great-great-grandmother. Most genealogists would treat this as a family treasure. But what about a pile of photocopies made from documents in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah? The disparity should be obvious.

The real question starts with the idea of whether or not the items in the collection can be easily replaced. Are they unique or merely copies of records that can be obtained by some minor effort? Do the items have real sentimental value?

At this point, I need to clarify the concept of a collectable. People collect everything you can think of. One person I know had a huge collection of thousands of the commercial paper toothpick containers you can pick up in restaurants. Genealogical collections must be judged by their content. A pile of paper may be impressive, but does the content have any real genealogical value?

I have people come to me all the time with an old floppy disk full of "valuable" family data they entered into a computer years before, only to find out that the disk contains a few hundred names of recent family members with no sources or documentation. Further, in a few minutes, we find the same information readily available online in any number of family trees. Sometimes the individual genealogist or his or her family are not in the best position to determine the value of the work that has been done.

The basic concept involved in a preservation effort is to digitize the items, make sure the digital copies are in a permanently maintained collection such as the FamilySearch.org Family Tree and then provide for the conservation and preservation of the originals. I find it incredible that someone would spend their entire life gathering documents and information about their family, only to act defensive when someone shows an interest in preserving it all.

Let's look at the pile and what it may contain. In each category, I will comment on the value of the items.

Category One: Original artifacts, documents and photos
You should always take definite steps to identify and preserve all of these items. These items should also be photographed and digitized and included in an online repository such as the FamilySearch.org Family Tree. Labels, descriptions and stories should accompany any such objects or documents. For detailed instructions, see the Library of Congress Preservation website. Some really valuable items or documents should be given to repositories such as university special collections libraries and museums.

Category Two: Genealogical notes and gathered information
Too many of us, myself included, spend all our time gathering more data when we really need to focus on what we have already gathered. I am overwhelmed when I see the amount of information some people, myself included, have gathered and failed to organize or preserve. The real question about this category of items is whether or not anyone can "pick up" where I left off? This is one of the most persuasive arguments for collaboration.

Category Three: Items of interest
We all have that pile of stuff we find interesting or helpful, notes, papers, copies of programs, syllabus material, handouts from conferences etc. This is mostly junk and will not be missed by posterity.

Category Four: Books and publications
Books are books. Some books have value as books, others only have value for the material contained therein. Genealogy surname or histories should be donated to a library, digitized and put online or otherwise disposed of. Unique publications, such as privately published family histories can be donated to libraries where they can be digitized and further preserved, but the rest of the books should be treated as books.

The concept here is to take the time to evaluate the pile and take steps to move it, throw it away or organize and categorize it before you get too old or die. Get busy.

I just inherited a huge pile of genealogy. Now what?

From time to time, as has happened recently, I hear from people who have just "inherited" a huge pile of genealogically related records, documents, photos etc. This usually occurs upon the death or disability of a relative who has spent a considerable period of time amassing this collection of information. In some cases, this occurrence results in the loss of all of the information when it is summarily thrown out and destroyed. But in some rare cases, the recipients are mindful of the value of the information and it is preserved in some form or another. Sometimes the cache of records is maintained in a basement, garage or other storage area until some interested relative comes along and retrieves the records. This has happened to me personally a number of times. I have "saved" quite a number of collections over the years.

The question is, what do you do with this pile of stuff? The answer to this question depends on a lot of factors, most importantly, the interest and ability of the recipient. Most, if not nearly all, of the recipients of such information have not volunteered to receive the pile of records. Many such recipients have neither the time, the ability, nor the inclination to "carry on" the work of the genealogist. There are, unfortunately, very few record repositories that are willing to accept random genealogical papers. The rare exceptions are collections that usually involve prominent historical figures in the geographic areas covered by the repositories' interests.

One interesting effort to preserve these collections is The Genealogical Library Center, Inc. run by Arlene Eakle and her husband in Tremonton, Utah. This is an excellent example of how one or two people can make a difference in preserving these valuable documents. If the collection is unique or has real historical value, there may also be a museum, historical society, state or local library, university special collections library or other institution that is interested in the collection.

The main issue, as described by Arlene, is that the heirs or other family members do not appreciate the value of what the genealogist has accumulated over the years. It is imperative that anyone interested in genealogy be aware of the possibility of the loss of the collections of fellow genealogists and offer to rescue the information if possible.

From my own experience, I would suggest that steps be taken to preserve the information. Of course, the best thing that can happen is that the genealogist will make adequate provisions for sharing and preserving their own research. This often does not happen because of the solitary nature of genealogical research and the type of person attracted to the pursuit. In order to find someone involved and interested, you may have to search well beyond the confines of your immediate family.

First, the nature and extent of the research needs to be evaluated. If the person receiving the collection does not have the background to evaluate the records, then they need to seek help from someone who does. This can be a family member or someone from the greater genealogical community. Ideally, you will find someone who wants to acquire the entire collection. But what if you are the interested person? How do you handle a large amount of information?

What if you determine that the entire collection is nothing more or less than a pile of photocopies and extracted records? Perhaps, the best way to approach this situation is to see how much of what is present is already online in the FamilySearch.org Family Tree or some other large online unified family tree program. One of the collections of records I acquired was nothing more than copies of other, reasonably available records, mostly photocopied family group records. The first level of examination is to determine what, if anything in the collection, is unique and irreplaceable? As I already mentioned, this may include consulting with people who have more expertise in this area.

The value of genealogical data is directly proportional to the degree to which the collection contains original documents, letters, diaries, journals, photographs etc. Any original documents should be preserved even if digital copies of the documents have been made. The value of original documents cannot be underestimated. Steps should be taken to preserve these valuable original documents or artifacts. For information on this process of preservation see Preserving Your Family Treasures from the Library of Congress. There is no substitute for sitting down and looking at each and every document and record in the collection. Without direct examination of the records, assuming that some pile of records is unimportant is extremely dangerous and detrimental to the process of preservation. I am always amazed at what some people with throw away as unusable or of no interest. Where you set the threshold of what to keep and what to throw away is a highly personal decision.

The best possible outcome of any collection is that it is preserved and made available to the family in the future. One way to do this is to digitize any and all of the records and then organize the digital copies online. The best place to do this, in my opinion, is on FamilySearch.org. Presently, the Family Tree program and the Memories program on this website can accommodate huge amounts of family information. Because of the nature of the organization, FamilySearch has in the past and will in the future make every possible effort to preserve the information included in the website.

What if the "collection" is primarily a computer file, either a GEDCOM file or in some other program? This presents a restoration problem, but makes the transition to another more current program possible in some cases. The value of the information contained in the program is, again, directly proportional to the amount of documentation and a record of the sources where the information was obtained. If the same information can be found online, it may only be necessary to compare what is already in the file to what is readily available about the family online.

Do not ignore the issue of preserving and conserving the collection. Take action to ensure that the valuable information is preserved for family members.

WeRelate -- genealogical social network

WeRelate is billed as the world's largest genealogical wiki. It is a cross between a wiki and social networking site with individual pages for ancestors rather than social networking "friends." It is a project developed by the Foundation for On-Line Genealogy, Inc. in partnership with the Allen County Public Library. Because it is a wiki, individuals can add and change information in real time, allowing relatives to collaborate on the details of their individual families. Individual pages can contain photos and scanned documents and can contain as much, or little information as may be available. Information can be added or changed at any time.

Because it is a wiki, WeRelate is responsive to change. Pages can be created indivdually or by uploading a GEDCOM file which will create a page for every individual in your file. There is an upper limit of 10 megabytes to the size of the file that can be uploaded. Pages can contain both text and graphic. Scanned images can also be annotated by putting notes on the image. Photo images can be tagged with the names of the individuals. Data can be viewed in pedigree format, and on a variety of maps and timelines through the Family Tree Explorer.

Individual pages can be put on a "watch list" so that the those on the watch list will be notified if any changes are made to an individual page. The wiki also contains research helps, including article, maps, place name pages, alternate name index and a source index. WeRelate claims to have the largest historical and current inhabited place name index with over 430,000 inhabited places. Users can also search over 1.2 million sources, including the Family History Library Catalog.

Each user can have a dashboard showing the people who are watching the same pages you are and allowing individuals to connect and communicate in the wiki without using their personal E-mail address.

The non-traditional interface takes some time to get used to, but this is a site worth exploring.

What do I do with all my records? Part 2

In the last post, I talked about scanning using desktop flat-bed scanners. There are alternatives. Camera technology has increased to the point where, in some instances, cameras can do the same job or better than a flat-bed scanner. This is particularly true with the higher resolution digital cameras that are now readily available.

The resolution of digital cameras is measured in pixels. Up to a point, the more the better. Over the past few years the resolution of digital cameras has steadily increased, the average low priced (under $300) camera will take very high resolution pictures. Cameras starting at below $100 have 7.0 Megapixel resolution. One Megapixel is a resolution of one million pixels. The higher the number, roughly speaking, the higher the resolution of the camera. However, cameras priced at the low end, have fairly cheap optics or lenses. In today's market (2008) higher end cameras, around $1000, have from 12 to 15 Megapixels. The number of Megapixels is also roughly comparable to the number of sensor units in the camera. The present upper limit is about 144 megapixels.

I have found that 10.1 Megapixel cameras take photos that are as detailed as scans from a flatbed scanner for documents and printed materials. However, for photos, you can still get a better image from a flatbed scanner. If you have a lot of family letters to scan, I might suggest using your camera on a tripod or other stand. Taking photos of the pages is tremendously faster than scanning and the resolution, if over 10 Megapixels, is comparable. If you have a camera already, you might try a few photos of documents to see if the resolution is acceptable or not.

Off the subject a little, you can take your camera to the library or other record repository and if the rules allow, take pictures of the pages of the book you are citing. Don't forget to take a picture of the title page and call number. Since there is no film involved, the pictures saved to your hard drive are certainly cheaper than paying for poor quality photocopies. You can also attach a copy of the document to your file for reference. (More on this technique later).

You can also use your digital camera to take pictures of actual physical objects, i.e. dolls, jewelry, guns, etc. The pictures can then be attached to your file to illustrate a family history.

Slides are a different matter. A lot of scanners sold today advertise that they can also scan slides. This is literally true, but the quality is really poor. I have yet to see a flatbed scanner produce an acceptable scan of a 35mm slide. To do slides, you should use a scanning service or, if you have a whole lot of slides, buy a dedicated slide scanner. Unfortunately, these devices are not cheap. Nikon makes a very good slide scanner called the CoolScan but it costs over $1000. If you read a lot of reviews, you will soon discover that this is about what it costs to get an adequate scan of a slide.

More later

What do I do with all my records?

One of the most challenging aspects of family history research is what to do with all of the stuff, papers, photographs and artifacts (heirlooms) we seem to accumulate. The companion question is how do I share my documents, photos, recordings, and so forth, with my family and other researchers. Popular genealogical publications run periodic articles on the subject and almost every seminar or conference has a class or two or even more on organization. From time to time, I will suggest some more current solutions to the problem. Technological changes have had the greatest impact on the area of storage and reproduction of all of this stuff. I will discuss the newest tools available to preserve and disseminate all of our collections of information. Please feel free to submit comments or ask questions.

The categories of items we accumulate likely fall into one of the following categories:

• Books and manuscripts
• Letters and journals
• Photographs or slides including paintings and other art work
  
• Original documents i.e. birth certificates, marriage certificates etc.
• Physical objects from furniture to jewelry and everything in between
• Voice recordings in a variety of formats including tape, cassette and digital
• Movies including old film formats and digital

I will start out with some suggestions for photographs and slides.

Most of us have a collection of photographs either in the form of slides or physical prints. The size and format of these objects can vary considerably, from small 1/2 frame slides to huge poster size (or larger) paintings or prints. Fortunately all of these formats can be digitized in high quality and stored in a variety of storage media and then made available to our family and other interested people.

Advances in technology have made it relatively simple to digitize photographic media. Flat photos of less than standard 8.5 x 11 inch format are best scanned by a flat bed scanner. Most of the scanners sold today attach to a computer by means of a USB cable. Almost all newer computers have at least one USB port. Higher priced scanners often offer an additional faster FireWire (IEEE 1394) cable port. Your computer may or may not have a FireWire port, so you may wish to identify the types of ports your computer has before purchasing a scanner. Scanner vary in price from less than $50 to more than $5000 depending on resolution, speed and paper handling capabilities. A good scanner for photographs can be purchased for under $100. The most popular brands of scanners are Epson and Canon.

The software provided with the scanner lets you scan an image and save it to your computer's hard drive. You may wish to invest in one or more external hard drives if you plan on doing a lot of scanning. Scanned images can take up a lot of storage space on your computer's hard drive and you may run out of space. Even more important, once you spend some time scanning your images, you don't want to lose them and you will need an external hard drive to backup your images. It is best to scan all your images into one folder, with subfolders for organization, so that you can backup the folder by dragging a copy onto your external drive.

Once you have the images scanned into your computer, you will need to label and organize them. To do this organization, you can use any number of photo organizing software programs. One of the best is Picasa3. This program is free from Google. See http://picasa.google.com/

More later