Oh, Pam, I feel your pain! About a year ago (about 6 years post-retirement), I finally started tackling my collection. It is an enormous project, and you're right to feel trepidation as you begin (if only I had known what I was in for, I probably wouldn't have started! But, like most mothers, I was motivated by guilt).

I decided to scan all the photos so that my daughter and son could both have copies. I'm also using scanned copies in a scrapbook of our family history. But first, I had to organize all the loose photos.

The early years (my childhood, my husband's childhood, our dating and early years of marriage, and the first few years of our children's lives) are in albums and are labeled and dated, so I can get to them later. But, somewhere along the way (in 1985 or so), I couldn't keep up with the albums, so I just threw packets of photos into a drawer--in random order. Often, I didn't even label the envelopes! Therefore, identifying and labeling these photos was my highest priority.

I started by organizing the photos chronologically (often guessing at the approximate age/grade from clues such as hairstyle, clothing, companions, and occasions) and adjusting/correcting as I went along. Sometimes, class and team photos provided clues. After a while, I became pretty good at estimating the approximate year. I recently inherited a box of photos from my MIL, and HER copies were often dated, so that was a help, too. As I worked, I labeled each developer's packet with a date (or approximate date range) and filed them in a large, sturdy shoebox.

After that, I scanned the contents of each packet--a few at a time--over a period of a few weeks. I labeled the digital file of each photo with the date, the names of the persons in the photo, and sometimes the occasion or other description (the scanner program wouldn't permit long file names, but I could add more details once they were stored on the computer). I found that it was better to give the year FIRST in the filename (e.g., 1995-8-26), as that automatically put the photos into chronological order. If I wasn't sure of the year, I added "c." (for "circa") after the year. Each photo was filed in a folder for the person shown. If both children were in the same photo, I made copies for each folder.

Since I was using many of these photos for my scrapbook album, I also edited the photos as I went along. In Picasa (a free program that you can download), it takes only a few seconds to crop and enhance contrast. Occasionally, I used the touch-up function to repair blemishes. Picasa is not Photoshop, but it can do quite a lot to improve photos.

My next step is to scan the albums, which are deteriorating in the attic. Unfortunately, in the 1970s, I made the mistake of using "magnetic" albums, and many of the photos have become stuck to the backing. I'll have to peel them away carefully with a butter knife (or maybe dental floss). I may need to scan an entire album page and then crop it several times to make a copy of each photo.

Eventually, I will give the digital files to my son and daughter. I haven't decided yet whether it's better to transfer them on a CD or DVD or upload them to Photobucket or a similar program. Both of them will then have photos of themselves, their siblings, and their cousins and friends.

Good luck with your project!

Sue

Sue, do you have a special scanner? My printer has a scanner and it is a rather slow process. This could be a lifetime project.

Your tips are great. I like the idea of getting the envelopes dated and in order to start. I'm also going to toss all duplicates, bad pictures and anything that I have no idea who, what or where it is. I guess I have to include pics of my XH and my niece's XH. They are part of the family history. I'm sure my sons might like the pics of their father.

Honestly, I can't get over how young we all once were. I wish I had appreciated it more at the time instead of t=feeling over the hill at age 40. I was a mere youth and also skinny as a rail.

I have been getting some dates by counting the number of candles on the kids birthday cake pics. Very helpful. They were so gawky looking during those pre-adolescent and adolescent years. The clothes and hairdos are so funny.

On top of all these photos I also have about five DVDs of old home movies, from when I was a kid and from my own family. I had everything transferred from film to tape and then to DVDs. What next??

I haven't organized a photo since about 1974.

No advice....I also am going down for the count...
BUT before you toss photos that are uninteresting, consider the "things" in the photos. Like that table that sits in your bedroom that once sat in your grandmother's living room, or the brooch that un named girl is wearing....that also sits in your jewelry box.

When my parents died, I got all... ALL the pictures because my brother is a flake.
When My in laws died....again I got ALL the pictures because my SIL is downsizing and lives in a condo in Arizona and has no room.
I scanned a bunch....need to do more.

Pam, my scanner is not a special photo scanner-printer. I understand that those can do lots of the editing tasks--but it's not necessary, in my experience. I have a stand-alone scanner, a Canon CanoScan LIDE100. It's fairly slow, I guess, but I found that I often could scan 2 (or 3 or 4) photos at a time (the files were automatically numbered -001, -002, etc, but I was renaming the files anyway). However, if the photos are too close together, the scanner may "think" that they are all one photo, so I sometimes had to repeat the process, spacing them out more and staggering their placement on the scanner.

I forgot to mention that, in naming the digital files, the next word after the date could be the name of a special occasion, holiday, vacation, etc, so the photos can also be grouped by theme.

As for the developer's envelopes, those could eventually be replaced by pretty dividers in an archival-quality storage system, but they're helpful as a "first draft" for the sorting process.

I, too, tossed a few pics that didn't contain anything recognizable. But sometimes, a blurry or damaged photo may be the only evidence of some person or event you (or your kids) may want to remember; that's when retouching and other editing is so helpful. And Linda makes a good point. The background objects often jogged my memory of how our furniture used to be arranged, 30 years ago; I had forgotten what was where. And it was fun to see my kids' clothes, which I had handed down to their younger cousins, appearing on different kids.

I want to encourage you and Linda (and anyone else out there who has gotten "a little behind") that the sorting/dating process is somewhat time-consuming (depending on the number of photos you have and whether you labeled the envelopes), but the scanning phase isn't really that bad. I broke it up and only did a little at a time, because, although it's a tedious task, you have to pay attention to what you're doing. But, still, it was finished in just a couple of weeks. YMMV, of course.

Sue

Yes, as I was looking thru the photos it was often the bush or tree behind the kid on the first day of school that was equally interesting. It was two feet tall then and is now ten feet tall or gone altogether. The funny old cars of neighbors or even long ago fences are fun to see again. I forgot that my neighbor had an apple tree that dropped apples on my driveway. We'd back over them and the bees would have a heyday.

It is very easy to get lost on Memory Lane. I know I will end up with my mom's photos and hers go back a couple generations.

Once the weather gets stinking hot and I am stuck in with the AC I will get back to those boxes. I'll see if my scanner can do more than one at a time.

Pam, try to go through your mother's photos with her so she can identify the people for you. It's so frustrating to have family photos and not know who the people are.

My old photos are mostly in boxes made for storing photos, and I have not gotten around to scanning very many of them because I keep taking new photos that merely stay on one of my hard drives. We documented out house and yard very thoroughly when we moved three years ago, and it's amazing to me to see how much we have changed the house and yard, but especially the yards. I only change one thing at a time in the yard, but over time that adds up.

I have lots of travel photos that I took in Mexico and Vancouver in the late 1970s and early 1980s. A lot of them do not have people in them, but sometimes I managed to get photos of myself. I was very photogenic in my 20s and 30s and even worked as a model for a couple of fashion photographers when I was in the fashion industry. What I regret is not taking or saving photos of the clothes I designed and made. I didn't have a good camera in my 20s, and I always expected to be able to get the pictures from my business partners, but I lost all contact with them after they moved the business to Manhattan, which is when I went back to university to get a design degree. I have a cousin in Denver who has collected a lot of very old family photos from my father's side of the family.

In addition to all the photos, Kevin and I have videos going back pretty far - including home movies from the mid 1950s before Kevin was born. I even have still shots that go with some of the videos, and some of the movies and still shots are pretty funny now, even though I was very serious about the movies and still shots when I was a child. I was very dramatic back then without realizing it, but it made for interesting movies. I can look back now and see why people thought I was funny as a child, although I hated being laughed at at the time.

There was a period of my life from which I do not have many pictures - mainly from college until my late 20s. In my early 20s there were plenty of pictures taken of me in San Francisco and two or three times I found my picture in art galleries, but I do not have copies of any of them, except for one that made it into a calendar published in 1992 featuring 1970s SF photography. They used that photo without my permission, and so I made the publisher give me some free copies of the calendar. Random tourists in San Francisco used to take my picture on the street - possibly because of my stunning fashion sense. My friends and I dressed up a lot back then. I liked the freedom of expression in SF in the 70s. I found that somewhat in Venice in the 1990s as well.

I won't be able to work on my photo collection for a while. Right now I am making valances for Kevin's bedroom windows. I got some free fabric at work left over from an upholstery job that is a silk damask with a black background with leopards and tigers walking through it. I also got some very nice fringe to use with it, and I'll photograph that once I finish the project. We put the curtain rods up last Sunday, and I stocked up on black thread. There seem to be fewer and fewer fabric stores around now, and so we had to make a trek just for thread!

Lars

Scanning takes forever. You may want to consider this:

1. Set up a tripod with your digital camera shooting down,

2. Adjust the lighting so that you have no reflections,

3. You may need a flat glass plate if you photos are curled to weigh them down.

4. Once you set the focus, it goes very quick to shoot all your old photos.

Quality is not as good as scanning, depending on your lighting and camera.

dcarch

CC, thankfully my mom did go through the pictures and label them already. She also chucked quite few that no one could identify. Since she is 94 and inherited her great aunt's collection, her pictures go back quite a way. My nieces may be interested in those some day, however I don't think they will want mine!

Lars, weren't we all beautiful when we were young? I've seen photos of you and you were especially photogenic. I wish I had more pictures from college. We were busy doing other things besides taking pictures, plus film and developing was expensive. Now everyone has pictures of everything on Facebook, including things they may regret. I do enjoy my friends pics on FB.

Dcarch, I will first try to get the photos in order and then think about digitizing. Maybe. Interesting idea, though.

Hello everyone!
I haven't popped in for a long time...saw this topic and laughed because it's exactly what I'm doing!!

I sort my photos in year order, with tabs for events during the year. I store them in photo storage boxes. I have 10s of thousands of photos. :( or :)...depending on how you look at it!

I have 5 "scrapbook series" running simultaneously, chronologically....one "series" for each child and one for me & DH. I spend more time writing, etc, in the kids' albums so they'll know what things are. I don't do much in my album...maybe names of people and places. I don't do any albums by event because I'd end up with hundreds of albums. I chose my approach because I want each child to later have albums from their lives as they grew up. I have absolutely nothing from my childhood. Maybe about 5 pictures. That's it.

Sorting is onerous. I grab a box while I'm watching tv, sitting in car queue, sometimes will take on if I know I'll have a long wait somewhere (dr office, etc). I weed out all the duplicates, blurries, the "why did I shoot that?" photos...but I don't throw them away at first. I store them by year in another photo box and hold them for a bit. I make sure I get beyond that point in my albums and I know I'm not going to want them. Then I'll toss them. I do hang onto a lot of duplicate kids' photos because we still get requests to bring photos to school now and again.

I've thought about scanning and saving them on dvds. But I think technology is changing and dvds are going by way of the 8-tracks, cassettes, VHS and records. I think online storage is the best option. I do have all my current photos (by current, I mean since about 2005) in online storage. I pulled them all into iPhoto a couple years back and saved them on a dedicated HD. It made sorting into years and events super, super easy. Also, tagging people. I find it the best approach for me for my current photos as I plod along getting my printed photos sorted and filed into albums.

Hi Deb, it's great to "see" you again! I remember that you used to talk about scrapbooking, but, at the time, I didn't understand why it was so time-consuming ... now, I certainly DO! ;-) It's wonderful that you've been doing this throughout your kids' lives, so you've had an organizational system right from the start. From the perspective of the older generation, that's a big advantage. When you don't get started till later in life, you may face a monumental challenge at the outset.

OTOH, I see that we all face some of the same obstacles, because the recent changeover to digital technology affects us all. In former times, if we wanted copies, we'd pay a photo lab to make duplicates from the negatives; now, we can scan the photos and print the copies ourselves, and that's much cheaper but far more labor-intensive on our part.

Now that my kids are adults, I see that, although they take many digital photos and post them on Facebook, Photobucket, etc, they don't necessarily make prints at all. I wonder whether hardcopy photo albums are becoming obsolete.

Sue

Holy smokes, M24K, I bow down to you. That is quite the organizational process. I guess I have to break the sorting down into parts.

Do any of you ever find the old photos kind of hard to look at? Sometimes I can remember what was running through my head at that time and I wish I could go back and talk to the person that I was and say "have confidence"or "do this not that". I guess we all have 20/20 hindsight.

My late sister was a compulsively neat and organized person (I didn't get that gene!). She kept her photo albums all up to date. There is an album for each year and sometimes an album devoted to a special vacation. It's interesting to go back and look at them. The only thing she did that is kind of maddening is that her captions are also her opinions and they are not always kind. It might say "Susie with that awful haircut" or "Ann during her chubby stage". Susie and Ann may not want to go down in family history remembered that way. I do like the one of me that says "My skinny sister". If only it had lasted!

Now that my bedroom is so clean it could win a prize, I can turn my attention to the photos.

Pam, you should post a photo of your bedroom! I would like to get mine to that state, but because the bedroom I have now is much larger than what I've had in the past, it seems to attract more stuff that needs to be sorted through. If I had less room, I would have less stuff. As for the "neat and organized" gene - it helps if you are a Virgo like my sister, but I am the opposite. I can be very organized, but only up to a point.

Apple certainly wants DVDs to become obsolete, but with the extra storage available on Blu-Ray discs, that will probably take longer than they expect. I do not trust storing things on line - there is nothing stopping the storage host from disappearing like a puff of smoke. I used to have quite a bit on my Yahoo briefcase, but that's all gone now. Hard drives are somewhat less reliable than DVDs, and so it is best to keep important things stored in more than one medium. Phonograph records are still around and are more permanent than more recent storage methods.

My mother kept a baby book for me in the 1950s, and it was the only one that she spent much time on, even though my sister is a year and a half older, and I have two younger brothers, one five years younger and the other 15 years younger. DM did not even bother making a baby book for Kevin, but I did manage to collect a few photos, and I recorded some of his first words on reel to reel tape, which subsequently got lost in one of DM's closets. I suspect that our sister threw them out along with anything else of mine that I had left there for more than a couple of years. All of her photos are in albums, but I have to say that they are mostly pretty boring to look at. Her husband has a large collection of 3D slides that he took on various trips (As a researcher for the government, he has traveled around the world several times), but it is difficult now to get him to show them.

I do not find old photos hard to look at. I essentially have no regrets about the choices that I made in the past and see any potential flaws are part of a learning/progressing phase that was a necessary part of getting to where I am now. My one possible regret in life is not taking advantage of offers to have my clothing designs mass produced for middle to low end stores. In my 20s I wanted everything I designed/made to be exclusive and original, and I looked down on the mass market. I like it, however, when my furniture designs sell well, and I feel that many of these designs will be around long after I am gone, although that will be of no use to me by then.

I wish my family had kept better records of its history and past. One side of the family did, but they were the ones with the most money, and so I guess their story was more interesting.

Lars

Oh, Lars, I hope that last sentence was made tongue-in-cheek! The family history of people who are not well off can be just as interesting as that of rich folks ... probably more so, as they had to struggle and evolve more than people who could just sit back and watch the stock dividends roll in. And most of us are in "the 99%"! There are not many photos of my immigrant grandparents, but the ones I have are truly treasures to me and my family. My scrapbook fills in the background with maps, passenger manifests, Census documents, photos of the homes or neighborhoods they lived in, memoirs from relatives, and other details that help me tell their story.

As for the current generations, one of the nice things about starting my scrapbook project so late in life is that I can judiciously select photos that really show something interesting, instead of simply including every school photo and birthday party. For example, I have pages depicting my daughter's dramatic flair; they show her playing dress-up in childhood, in a stylized "jazz hands" pose during her post-college years, as well as wearing an over-the-top "Bubbles Moneypants" costume at an adult Halloween party. For my son, who likes to cook, I showed him as a 2-year-old playing on the kitchen floor with pots and pans, as well as shots of his recent attempts at Indian and Asian cuisine. You often need the perspective of time to recognize themes.

But all this scrapbook stuff is beyond the scope of what Pam is talking about. At a minimum, we want to preserve our photos and pass them along in the best condition possible to future generations. To share them with multiple persons, we need to make copies. And to make them understandable, we need to organize them and label them in some fashion.

Sue

Lars, it makes me happy to hear that you are pleased with your life choices. I can pinpoint four or five times in my life when I wish I had taken a different road, or taken a particular road sooner than I did. Oh well, we all do what we have to do at the time and make what we hope is the best choice for all. Looking at old photos makes me nostalgic.

One time I put together a small picture album with each of my older son's school photos on a page. It was so funny to see him evolve from a kindergartener, to young boy to goofy teenager. If you flipped the pages you almost see him grow before your eyes.

Sue, I couldn't agree more about including the stories. My mom tells me family stories all the time (and I do mean ALL THE TIME), but I have a hard time stringing it all together in my mind. I guess I should get this project together. Sigh.

This thread (see link) just popped up to the top on the Organizing the Home forum. There are some good ideas about using photo boxes for sorting and/or storage.

Sue

Here is a link that might be useful: Using photo boxes

Thanks, Sue. It's comforting to know others are struggling with this. Seems to be a common problem. I feel bad for the person several generations down the line who gets more than a hundred years worth of photos. It would be fun to see pictures of great-great-great grandparents!

As our designated family historian & a genealogist, I've amassed about 70 pictures of 8 generations that are the foundation of our family's history. The oldest has a birth year of 1833. Some are hand enamelled in beautiful colors (Russia).

It took many years to gather those pictures including letters to the US War Department. They sent me an 8"x10" picture of great-grandpa in his Civil War uniform that they had in their files along with all his regiment info. He fought with Grant at Shiloh, Vicksburg, Ft. Donelson, and a couple others eventually having his horse shot out from under him (happened often). Bad times for our country.

I've gathered pictures from people I've never met living in Siberia, Germany, Scotland, Sweden, and all over the US. Those wonderful people who either knew or knew of my ancestors took the time to write a short note of any info they had about that person's life. It took us several years due to the expense but we've had them all archivally matted & framed. I attached notes on the person's life to the back of each picture. Also on the back I've noted which kid gets that original picture when I die. In the meantime, they hang on our "Rogue's Gallery" wall here in Mystic. Every time the kids and grands are here a few minutes are spent looking at the pictures & teaching the latest generation names & connections. We are a motley group. :)

I've got a complicated system for filing thousands of photos, vital record documents, maps, letters, Rutgers University Library research, my own research from study & trips, cemetery excursions, etc. I've written & published (in 1992) an over 800 page book on Mom's genealogy & my photos are filed by reference numbers tied to that book.

It was a physical impossibility to give each kid one of everything. So, I made each a large scrapbook from copies of items that seemed best suited to each. I gave them their scrapbooks on their wedding days. Of course, they also each have a copy of the book that contains hundreds of pictures. They each have a copy of my file system for after I'm gone & they have to decide what to do with the book's documentation. I have 37 of those humongeous Rubbermaid tubs stuffed with pictures, immigrations info, citizenship stuff, vital records, etc. The tubs are color coded for each surname.

Photos of during the kids' childhood years...I took the easy way out. I presented them each a tub & said, "Have fun! Keep what you wish & you decide what to do with the rest." :)

My second genealogy book, "Thunder on the Steppes" has come back from the second edit & I'm waiting for one last 4'x6' genealogical chart from Dr. Pleve in Saratov & then it's ready for publishing. I've been waiting on that darn chart for 10+ years. His wife prepares them in beautiful Russian caligraphy. I've received 6 and this last chart wraps up a huge project.

/tricia (who really doesn't want to see more pictures!)

Pam,
When I started my photobox storage files, I realized I had lots and lots of negatives. At the time, I bought a huge case of negative sleeves that come in sheets, 3-hole punched, for binder storage. Of course, I didn't know the world was going digital...so I have EXTRA...more than I could ever, EVER use. Do you need anything for storage of negatives? If you want some, let me know. I'd much rather farm the extras out to folks who will use them rather than throw them away.

Anyone else need any? I'm happy to send them out to you. Just shoot me an email. If I don't happen to respond, please come back here and let me know!
Deb

Thanks, Deb. That is so kind but I am not saving negatives. I would go blind trying to find which negative goes with each picture. If anyone wants copies they can scan it.

tricia, that is quite the project! Congrats to you.

Deb, you're way more organized than I am. I just got my pictures out of the drawers and into boxes, not even sorted, just in boxes. I don't get prints any more, everything goes on line. Drives my mother nuts, she wants PICTURES. I didn't save any negatives, I threw them all away.

the only reason I did anything with them at all is because I'm painting and doing some minor remodeling so I can get the house up for sale, or they'd all still be in drawers!

Lars, I agree that the "poor" side of the family very well may have been more interesting than the well to do side. My favorite piece of family history is a document I received regarding my great-great (I think) Grandfather, who was in the Civil War. A nice gentleman was doing a book on the Ohio battalions and had some information about Philip Powell that he wanted to include, so he found us to get permission. What was the document? It was a court martial proceeding/judgment against GGGrandpa for leaving his post. Grandma said he was probably drunk in the gutter somewhere, LOL.

Anyway, the sentence was 30 days with a ball and chain and he had to forfeit $12 of his pay each month for 6 months. Now, I don't know what Civil War soldiers got paid, but I'm betting it wasn't much more than $12 a month. That was far more interesting reading than some deadly dull story about debutante balls or plantation finances or whatever, LOL.

So, what am I going to do with all those darned pictures? I sure don't know, I have two 18 gallon plastic tote boxes full of them, and two regular photo boxes, also full, plus albums. How the heck did I take so many pictures? And why did I take so many of scenery that I cannot now identify?

Annie

I wonder whether hiring a service to digitize them would be prohibitively expensive. In the meantime, I'd probably aim to sort them some way that you can tell at a quick glance, maybe something like, before you were born, before kid #1 was born, before kid #2 was born, after kid #2 was born. I'd be ruthless about throwing some away, too. It's better to have 100 that are treasured than 1000 nobody ever looks at again.

Keep this in mind:

CDs, DVDs, etc. do not last forever. 20 to 50 years. Make sure you have more than one copy.

dcarch

Really? Only that long? I've already had the home 16mm films transferred to video tapes and then DVDs.

Glad I am not alone in this avalanche of photos!