family photos

lilypadfrog · ‎03-25-2010

I have boxes of family photos. I have identified most of them and scanned them to my computer. I then copied everything to flashdrives so I can distribute them to other family members. My question is, can I now dispose of these pictures? Oh I would keep the ones older than, say 1935 back through 1800's, but the "newer" ones could be tossed? Another family member did cross reference the photos to identify all people, including non-family and put them on some kind of access site at Ancestry.com so anyone could find them. I don't mind storing one box of the older photos but don't want to store the other 10. Your opinion?

Noel7 · ‎03-09-2010

@lilypadfrog wrote:
I have boxes of family photos. I have identified most of them and scanned them to my computer. I then copied everything to flashdrives so I can distribute them to other family members. My question is, can I now dispose of these pictures? Oh I would keep the ones older than, say 1935 back through 1800's, but the "newer" ones could be tossed? Another family member did cross reference the photos to identify all people, including non-family and put them on some kind of access site at Ancestry.com so anyone could find them. I don't mind storing one box of the older photos but don't want to store the other 10. Your opinion?

@lilypadfrog

I keep the old photos. they're like a piece of history to me. I even have a couple of tintypes of my mother's grandfather.

chiclets · ‎07-01-2012

I shred the photos I do not want, that way they are really gone.

StylishLady · ‎03-11-2010

DH is slowly digitalizing all our important photos and documents. I'll keep them in a box in case something happens to the computer. "Hard copy back-up" as it were.

keba58 · ‎08-26-2012

A distant family member had gathered and scanned all pictures to her computer throwing them away afterwards. She passed away unexpectedly and her computer crashed ( not sure which order). Consequently, no one has any family photos! Since that time I have distributed any that I have to the people who are in the photos or may have interest in them. I don't have children to pass them to and it gets them out of my closet. I would suggest doing the same, never know who may want to take up scrapbooking.

lilypadfrog · ‎03-25-2010

Keba58, I did think of the computer crashing. That's why I have a portable hard drive as an extra security. Also the photos are being loaded on flash drives with each family member getting one to use as they wish. With 6 flashdrives and the portable hard drive, I should be safe. Very good thought though. I am going to offer the hard copy of the photos to family, give them thirty days to respond then shred whats left.

Annabellethecat66 · ‎03-12-2010

OMG! I have boxes and boxes (unbelievable) of photos, VHS tapes, you name it. Every picture ever taken, every video of my 3 girls, all of the family get togethers and on and on! There have to be (just albums, not counting the boxes of loose pictures) 32 last count of big albums (I finally got tired of making them.

You see my grandmother that raised me was 1/2 Cherokee Indian and she believed you NEVER throw away a picture of another because when you take a picture you steel some of their soul, so you can't throw away the picture. You have no idea of some of the terrible pictures in those boxes. Ha!

I've told my girls when I downsize from this big house they are going to have to decide what to do with all of this stuff....I don't think they have any idea.

Mominohio · ‎08-08-2010

I'm not into digital photo storage as the 'only' thing.

Here is what I did. I inherited albums from three generations. I dismantled them (as they were in various states of mess anyway).

Most of the photos weren't documented, so I spent two years with the oldest relative who could help, and on each photo wrote everything I knew about the photo...names, places, dates, events, relationships, addresses etc.

I threw away a lot of 'vacation' pictures of sea shores, mountains etc. from who knows where, taken who knows when, with no people in the pictures.

I gave back to certain branches of the family, pictures that would mean more to them and their children/grandchildren than they did to me, and kept a copy of a few.

I copied all the special pictures (it was several hundred of them) some going back into the 1800's, labeled all those and gave them to my brother, so there are two sets.

Bought new albums and filed all pictures chronologically.

In my opinion, technology keeps changing and fast. Backing up photos in some way for storage is ok, and smart. But as time changes, it becomes hard to view them as technology changes (think VCR tapes today) and in my opinion, there is nothing like a real picture in the hand (or album or frame).

So I don't trust my computer, or the cloud or some stick with the only copy of my treasured pictures. Nothing, for me, will ever replace an actual photograph. I have backed up many of them on CD.

Nicole548 · ‎09-06-2017

I also really love family boxes, but before that it's better to process all the photos. Then I process them fixthephoto.com . my family has always been happy