I've saved literally every letter I've ever received... along with boxes of photos that have been sitting around for years.... I've finally managed to scan most of them making them into jpgs and pdf files. It has been interesting to think about them as I go, because they offer you to glimpse at how far you've come along.
I've always considered myself a family historian because of my desire from a young age to know everything about those family members in the sepia toned photos going back to the late 1800's ... I have collected a ton of stories from my father over the years.... Each letter gives me insight into time periods of each of the grouped and bagged photos I own. The actual material holding of photos is no longer necessary in this digital age, but I still enjoy having a few. I can now scan everything onto a little jump drive and let those go that no longer have any pertinence to me. You know, those photos that were taken from a distance too far to actually see the faces, but it was your loved one, so you just couldn't throw it away. So, I'll save only the best of the best and let some go... give others away... etc...
I can't help but wonder though, as I read retrieved letters I had written to my parents, what do the young parents today do to keep track of their family history? I read some of the letters containing stories about my kids ... something I'm so grateful to have now. As digital photos go to facebook, I wonder about the retrieval years from now. I'm going to use a jump drive and backup system that hopefully will available years from now, but in the meantime, I'm uploading photos for family members on a family group page I started. Hopefully, some of them will be able to upload a few to share with me one day.
I'd love to hear from others about what they do with their family photos
