Interview with a Wanna be Genealogist

My husband is really really interested in genealogy and all aspects of family history. As he puts it: "A wanna-be family history pictures and archivist." Here's what he has to say-- (and thank you, darling husband, for the interview and photos and information on scanning)--

Technology today makes preserving records easier than ever. And easier to share original documents with anyone at no additional cost. The opportunity to look into the face of an ancestor in a photograph and realize that they are connected to you is remarkable.

With the advent of scanning technology this is made easier and more accessible. I take old photos and scan the entire photo, even if there's damage to it. I can also just scan the faces, which are the most important part of the individuals in our history. I like to see the settings that they're in, I like to think about what they may be doing the day that they posed for this picture.

I have a treasured photograph of one young couple recently married, right before he went off to fight in the Civil War and never came home.

That is Smith Banta and his wife, Mary Jane London, my great-great grandparents. They had two children. Later, she remarried and had eight more children.

Documents such as marriage licenses, birth certificates, wills, letters and anything that might give information about family members can also be scanned and emailed to those interested. Scanning is a simple and inexpensive process for photos and documents. No more running to the copy store, or even worse--loaning an original valued document and worrying that you might never get it back.

 

Scanning Old Photos into the Computer

You see the "swimming pool" photo from the previous post? This was taken from a tiny Brownie camera shot, a little 3 x 4 photo of the kind that goes into photo albums. It scanned beautifully and looks better than the original. Same with the picture at the top of my blog.

Currently my husband and his sister are on a scanning binge. She and her husband have brought boxes and piles of old family photos over to our house so that the three of them can spend all day in my husband's office scanning them into the computer. It's time-consuming but the results are pretty cool. With the click of a mouse, original photographs can be shared among those interested.

When Farm Girl was being put together, century-old photos were scanned in and became part of the published book. I've included a few on my sidebar here. They look good displayed like this, but the originals are much smaller and somewhat shabby after years of being saved in boxes. Being able to scan them preserves them for the ages. And it's a simple matter to then download them to a thumb drive and take them to Walgreens or Costco to get new prints made.

 Just one more way that computer technology enriches our lives!