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The Spiker Gazette |
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Oxford, WV | Volume 10 | Issue 8 | August 2016 |
In this Issue: | Treasured Family Photos Options for Scanning Photos & Documents Sharing Precious Moments with the Family Announcements |
Treasured Family Photos
Written by: Bobbi Spiker-Conley To the family historian, few things are as treasured as a photograph. After compiling the basic facts about our ancestors, it is the vintage photos that piece together what is missing from our research. Now think about this. You may be the ONE person that has physical possession of an old family album or family bible. Or you may Even sadder is that old photos fade and deteriorate over the years. Their biggest enemies are light and humidity, but extreme heat and cold, insects, and general mishandling (everything from oils on your hands to improper storage techniques) also cause considerable damage. So how can we prevent these memories from being lost and make them easily available to the rest of our family? One solution is to digitally preserve them with an imaging device such as a scanner, then backup and distribute copies. There are many types scanners on the market. Each does one or two things really well; none (in my opinion) does everything equally well. Therefore, the "best" scanners are the ones that meet your needs. Do you prefer something small and mobile? Do you require an automatic feeder to conquer stacks of loose documents? Do you need the ability to create searchable PDFs or to stitch together multiple images? Head over to the family's General Store for a list of "scanners by type". Look through the inventory, compare models, read reviews. Discover which is best for your situation.
Two of our favorites are Google's PhotoScan and Microsoft's Office Lens. They can automatically detect edges, straighten images, correct perspective, remove glare, and save your images directly to Google Photos or Microsoft's OneDrive, respectively. Oh, did I mention...they're both FREE!!! As I see it, you no longer have any excuses for keeping those family photos hidden away. Scan them now. Make notes (you may be the only one that can identify the people, provide the context, or explain why the image is important to our family story,) and share them with the rest of us. Make copies and back them up -- to CDs, DVDs, hard drives, portable drives, online backups, photo storage sites, the cloud, everywhere. If one storage options fails, degrades, becomes obsolete or goes out of business in a few years, you'll be relieved to know copies of your files are safe elsewhere. So what are you waiting for? Get to work. Scan your pics, upload them to your favorite online service, and send me the link. |
Announcements
This is the first in a series of articles about preserving our family history. Be sure to stop by next month when we discuss Treasured Family Heirlooms.