Organizing Family Photos

[TexasProud]

Ok, I have one box with all of my dad's stuff. There is his baby book with pictures that I will leave alone. But tons of other pics.  I have a giant pile of stuff that I brought home from my mom's. Again, pictures, though unlike my dad, most are not labeled. What do I do with them?   I have letters she wrote to her parents in college (about 50 0f them) How do you preserve them?   Do you through most in the trash?  I mean, pictures of scenery, absolutely.  Hubby took down a photo album we made from a trip to Alaska in 2000.  I mean, who wants those scenery pics that aren't even good compared to what you can take with a phone now?  I mean really, there were 4 or 5 pics in there of us that I would keep, but I feel like I should discard the rest. Hubby says, "But we remember when we look at it?"  Ummm..the only reason we are looking at it, is because I got it from the craft closet that has 50 or so just like it and three giant boxes of pics from other trips/memorabilia that we haven't organized yet.  Yes, he was able to remember those places that we went ( wasn't that fun!) But really....do they mean anything? Our kids will just throw it out, right?

So how do you organize family memorabilia?  

Edited September 25, 2022 by TexasProud

[Hannah]

My paternal grandmother was meticulous in dating and labelling her photographs and in some cases even a small description of the event.  I'm a keen genealogist and it has been amazing to have all of this history available.  My cousin spent a lot of time scanning everything and has shared it with the rest of the family.  

I have a similar box to yours of my maternal grandmother's pictures and that is proving to be a lot more challenging because I also don't know who everyone is, or even where it was taken.  I've scanned those that I can figure out and was able to ask my uncle about (Mom passed away years ago). 

I have kept a shoe box of 'bad' scenery pictures for potential craft projects, although I really don't know yet what kind of project I could use them in or whether that will ever materialize.

For your own scenery I would absolutely keep only the very best and have it on one page of an album - with dates and locations so your kids and grandkids know what they're looking at!  Throw the rest away.

 

[MEmama]

Why not ask your kids? Everything changes, and old photos are always fascinating. Even what you might consider boring scenery changes—what an area looked like in Season X in whatever state will look vastly different in the years to come. I wonder sometimes about all my garden and landscape photos, but then I think back to how much things have changed in just the past few decades and how interesting it will be for younger generations (and us) to look back and remember when an area used to get snow in winter, or that certain birds used to live here, or what an area looked like before the wildfires/natural disasters/population growth or decline changed it forever. I love the old photos of this area of Maine when it was clearcut and bare, allowing for spectacular open scenery we don’t have today. Incidental details provide a fascinating peek into the banality of everyday life.
 

It sounds like your DH gets a lot out of the photos now. Photos and other forms of record keeping can have an amazing effect on our memory; when I was young I kept a calendar and even if I had written down just one thing I did that day, I could remember the entire day in full detail— for years after. Looking back through my albums now is priceless, even those out of focus, grainy landscape photos bring back so many memories. An entire cross country road trip can be recalled with one photo taken out the car window.

The quality of the photos is only testament to how much has changed and is a story unto itself. When DH and I were in our early 20s we went to Italy and for some reason all I brought was black and white film. I got some cool, artistic photos but we laugh at how we completely missed out on capturing the red roofs and vibrant colors. That wouldn’t happen today, so even though it was disappointing at the time when the film was developed, it makes for a story that could have only happened during a certain era.

[TexasProud]

3 minutes ago, MEmama said:

Why not ask your kids? 
 

It sounds like your DH gets a lot out of the photos now. P

I will, but two of them are still in school (20 and 25) and the other is a messy bachelor at 27.   Don't know that they would care at all. 

BUT HE DOESN"T.  All of those albums are stuck in a closet and we never see them. Seriously. He hasn't looked at that album since I made it 22 years ago.  I mean, how valuable can they be if no one looks at them?  We have typically taken 3 or more trips a year... so married 32 years...  Yeah, 100 photo albums or half started ones 🙂

[Katy]

I had a box of letters from my parents to my grandparents in the 1970’s & 1980’s. I found archival quality page protectors and put them in order in a binder. 

I agree to toss the scenic photos because without context they are meaningless. 

[TexasProud]

1 minute ago, Katy said:

 

I agree to toss the scenic photos because without context they are meaningless. 

But they are in the binders, so they know where they are from. They have context. They just still feel meaningless.

[Katy]

If they’re meaningless to you they’re clutter. 

[TexasProud]

8 minutes ago, Katy said:

If they’re meaningless to you they’re clutter. 

But they are not meaningless to my husband.  Hence the rub.

[Hannah]

19 minutes ago, TexasProud said:

But they are not meaningless to my husband.  Hence the rub.

Does it make sense to reduce the number of binders?  Or would that be more trouble than its worth?

[TexasProud]

Just now, Hannah said:

Does it make sense to reduce the number of binders?  Or would that be more trouble than its worth?

I don't know. And to be honest, he will be out of the country for a month, so I will probably just do what I think is best and put stuff back culled and organized. He will never know.  

[Katy]

I guess I don’t understand the problem. You don’t have enough space for the binders?

[Sunshine State Sue]

I had flight benefits for many years and traveled regularly. I had many photo albums. Eventually, I went through them and pulled out the pics that had someone in them that I wanted to remember. I tossed the rest.

It can be helpful to move. Do you really want to move those heavy photo albums?

OTOH, I am not very sentimental. I never sat down and perused the photo albums to bring back memories.

I am at my sil and bil's house right now. They are 83 and 82 and have been in the house for 40+ years. They will be moving to a retirement community sooner rather than later bc bil has Parkinson's. We are cleaning out the cellars under the house. OMG. I have labeled 15+ bins to go to grandson's garage so that sil can look through them when she is settled and has time. Okay.

I have a shoebox full of photos.

[TexasProud]

2 minutes ago, Katy said:

I guess I don’t understand the problem. You don’t have enough space for the binders?

I guess I don't want my kids to have to go through all this crap.  I want it to be as easy for them as possible.

[Hannah]

Just now, TexasProud said:

I guess I don't want my kids to have to go through all this crap.  I want it to be as easy for them as possible.

With our family's sense of humour, I'd leave a note in the beginning of each album with a "2001 trip to xxx - To be tossed out without a moment's hesitation or any guilt when I'm gone!"

[TexasProud]

2 minutes ago, Hannah said:

With our family's sense of humour, I'd leave a note in the beginning of each album with a "2001 trip to xxx - To be tossed out without a moment's hesitation or any guilt when I'm gone!"

Yeah, but you know they will not do that. They will look through them.  I know I would be scared to death to throw out something I shouldn't and my daughter is a lot like me, my oldest son may be that way as well. And it would take them DAYS just to go through all this stuff, especially the 4 GIANT tubs of half done scrapbooks on various trips.

[TexasProud]

Of course, most of this stuff is prior to our first digital camera in 2001 ( other than the giant bins. For about 5 or 6 years I then printed out photos and that is what is in those bins)  All the icloud stuff will just go away, I guess. They will have no memories at all printed since 2005 or so.

[Grace Hopper]

Are you talking about scrapbooks that pictures are just inserted into, or are you talking about SCRAPBOOKS that were made with lots of decor and lettering and other embellishment that was popular in the late ‘80s and ‘90s?

I have a few of the latter. I plan to disassemble the fancy and have the photos digitized and put into a photo book (a la snapfish or similar service), then when the book is returned, use a fine tip sharpie to jot details in the printed book. Like a family yearbook, but with my handwriting. That way the kids would have a more regular sort of book they can look at when they want, have their mom’s handwriting for nostalgia, and pertinent info about the people in it. I’ll also give each kid digital files so they could print whatever they want. 
 

I don’t want them afraid to toss an old creative memories style scrapbook. But then, I know my kids - as young adults now - and have a better idea of how they’d prefer to keep and enjoy old family photos. 

[pinball]

5 hours ago, TexasProud said:

Ok, I have one box with all of my dad's stuff. There is his baby book with pictures that I will leave alone. But tons of other pics.  I have a giant pile of stuff that I brought home from my mom's. Again, pictures, though unlike my dad, most are not labeled. What do I do with them?   I have letters she wrote to her parents in college (about 50 0f them) How do you preserve them?   Do you through most in the trash?  I mean, pictures of scenery, absolutely.  Hubby took down a photo album we made from a trip to Alaska in 2000.  I mean, who wants those scenery pics that aren't even good compared to what you can take with a phone now?  I mean really, there were 4 or 5 pics in there of us that I would keep, but I feel like I should discard the rest. Hubby says, "But we remember when we look at it?"  Ummm..the only reason we are looking at it, is because I got it from the craft closet that has 50 or so just like it and three giant boxes of pics from other trips/memorabilia that we haven't organized yet.  Yes, he was able to remember those places that we went ( wasn't that fun!) But really....do they mean anything? Our kids will just throw it out, right?

So how do you organize family memorabilia?  

How would anyone on here know if YOUR kids would throw out pictures and albums?

And what if someone said, “Yes, your kids will throw them out. Do them a favor and throw them out now so they don’t have to deal with it.” Would you do it? BC some rando on the internet wants to die and leave THEIR kids an empty room with a goodbye letter when they die? And they tell YOU to do the same thing?

[Catwoman]

1 hour ago, pinball said:

How would anyone on here know if YOUR kids would throw out pictures and albums?

And what if someone said, “Yes, your kids will throw them out. Do them a favor and throw them out now so they don’t have to deal with it.” Would you do it? BC some rando on the internet wants to die and leave THEIR kids an empty room with a goodbye letter when they die? And they tell YOU to do the same thing?

I would have been very upset if I found out that my mom had thrown away our family photos and memorabilia. I mean, we're not talking about three big storage units full of stuff here; this stuff will fit into a closet. 

There are so many other things we can throw away when we want to gain some extra space in the house, or when we don't want to leave a lot of extra junk around for our kids to dispose of when we're gone, but family photos would not be among those things for me.

[KatieJ]

It sounds like you have a plan that will work. 
Cull your scenery photos, saving one or 2,  but journaling is key here. 
Photos Thst are old, but you can identify, sometimes you know they are grandparents, or relatives of grandparents and you just journal that. Some one later might figure out who they are.

You can do some research,  but I think there is archival spray you use for your old letters, but for sure there are protectors you can get to save them. Creative Memories is worth the cost for those kind of items.

I am a Creative memory scrapbooker and have made at least 100 albums in the past 25 years. But I have changed my methods, what I save, etc. No one  is going to want 25 photos of Buffalo in Yellowstone park on my honeymoon 47 years ago, blurry ones at that.

I believe in keeping documents (your old letters,etc) and those photos which tell the story. I don’t put every single photo of a trip, or a birthday party or holiday in my albums. 
I might even start throwing out all those Christmas cards With just a signature , however I likely will keep the ones Where they included  a letter along with their card. 
 

[TexasProud]

1 hour ago, Catwoman said:

I would have been very upset if I found out that my mom had thrown away our family photos and memorabilia. I mean, we're not talking about three big storage units full of stuff here; this stuff will fit into a closet. 

There are so many other things we can throw away when we want to gain some extra space in the house, or when we don't want to leave a lot of extra junk around for our kids to dispose of when we're gone, but family photos would not be among those things for me.

Who said I was throwing it all away???  Here is a picture of a tub. ( One of three giant tubs.) It has a partially completed scrapbook. There are clippings.  There are all of those soccer pictures, baseball pictures, etc.  (You know the ones where you have to buy a package but only give away 3 out of the 15). There are photos that the grandparents sent us ( Remember, these are all from before the digital age.)   So, I would only throw away scenery photos. Keep maybe two soccer pictures...will probably start some kind of box for each of the kids. And yes, label what I keep. 

Then here is an example of scenery pictures from Alaska. And these are the kind of books I have..maybe 50 where you slip in the picture and write captions beneath.  I only ever finished maybe 3 of the actual scrapbook types.  I have about 15 that are unfinished: Each bag has the scrapbook, loose pictures, paper, stickers...all ready to be finished... Won't ever happen.)

Edited September 25, 2022 by TexasProud

[TexasProud]

37 minutes ago, KatieInMN said:

It sounds like you have a plan that will work. 
Cull your scenery photos, saving one or 2,  but journaling is key here. 
Photos Thst are old, but you can identify, sometimes you know they are grandparents, or relatives of grandparents and you just journal that. Some one later might figure out who they are.

You can do some research,  but I think there is archival spray you use for your old letters, but for sure there are protectors you can get to save them. Creative Memories is worth the cost for those kind of items.

 

Yes, but I am also scanning everything worth keeping, which is so overwhelming. I am sending the digital file to all the relatives. For example there is a newspaper article about my grandfather from the Houston paper. He was a lawyer and they did a nice spread on a day in his life. Great pictures of the entire family, shows him teaching at U of H, etc.  I scanned that while I was at mom's and sent it to everyone.  I am going to make a file. Put it on numerous thumb drives and in dropbox, etc. 

[KatieJ]

If you have tons of stuff that a whole lot of people would love to see, you can do a digital album and everyone can buy their own copy. Just a thought. 

[kbutton]

8 hours ago, TexasProud said:

I guess I don't want my kids to have to go through all this crap.  I want it to be as easy for them as possible.

I think it's okay to leave sorted things. I mean, if your DH really wants to keep it, cull what you think is important, and let the kids know that there is a more relevant stash and a less relevant stash. That makes decisions much easier.

1 hour ago, TexasProud said:

Yes, but I am also scanning everything worth keeping, which is so overwhelming. I am sending the digital file to all the relatives. For example there is a newspaper article about my grandfather from the Houston paper. He was a lawyer and they did a nice spread on a day in his life. Great pictures of the entire family, shows him teaching at U of H, etc.  I scanned that while I was at mom's and sent it to everyone.  I am going to make a file. Put it on numerous thumb drives and in dropbox, etc. 

I would definitely prioritize this kind of stuff over the vacation pics! 

Do you have a .pdf app? There are some great apps out there that work like a camera, but you can stitch together pages and pages and send people a link to download what they want. Adobe has a free one. If you want it to look as nice as it would on a scanner, you do need to probably set up some kind of frame so that you phone is completely level with the pages, but that would be worth your time and so much faster than a scanner.

[TexasProud]

12 minutes ago, kbutton said:

 

Do you have a .pdf app? There are some great apps out there that work like a camera, but you can stitch together pages and pages and send people a link to download what they want. Adobe has a free one. If you want it to look as nice as it would on a scanner, you do need to probably set up some kind of frame so that you phone is completely level with the pages, but that would be worth your time and so much faster than a scanner.

Can you explain what you mean by set up some kind of frame. Yes, scanning takes so much time, running back and forth to put things on the glass.

[kbutton]

13 minutes ago, TexasProud said:

Can you explain what you mean by set up some kind of frame. Yes, scanning takes so much time, running back and forth to put things on the glass.

Not really, lol! I guess maybe I'm saying if you are doing a bunch of pages, you want to make some kind of scaffold to hold your phone level, and then place the document below the phone.

[kbutton]

17 minutes ago, TexasProud said:

Can you explain what you mean by set up some kind of frame. Yes, scanning takes so much time, running back and forth to put things on the glass.

Here you go--I need one of these.

https://www.amazon.com/Photomyne-Flexible-inches-22-5x22-5-Scanning/dp/B08PDCDGY9/ref=asc_df_B08PDCDGY9/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=475811884312&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15783596726961088274&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1023838&hvtargid=pla-1186035796473&psc=1

I think there are also apps made for taking pictures of pictures in batches. My uncle told me about one once, but I don't remember the name. They are reasonably priced and save some time.

Edited September 25, 2022 by kbutton

[TexasProud]

2 minutes ago, kbutton said:

Not really, lol! I guess maybe I'm saying if you are doing a bunch of pages, you want to make some kind of scaffold to hold your phone level, and then place the document below the phone.

Ok.. we have several tripods and different stuff that we used to make YouTube videos ( Well, we filmed them, haven't actually made the videos yet.) Maybe my dh can figure out a way to do something like your link above.  Thanks!

[Ali in OR]

I have a box from my aunt of photos from her grandmother's branch of the family with almost no identification on them. Some of them we can recognize the people--my great-grandmother and her beautiful sisters. But the generation older? We don't know who is in the photos. My aunt got pretty involved in ancestory.com 5-10 years ago and found a distant relative that branched off from this older generation. Since I had the box of photos, my aunt had me email this person some of the better portraits (we didn't know who they were but had some decent guesses). This person could tell us which sibling was which, gave us names, etc. Then I posted what she called "the holy grail." It was a distinguished looking gentleman a generation older, and he was something like her great-great-grandfather. She had his name and everything. And her only picture of him had been this same portrait, but it was a photo of it in the background on a wall in a home, and when she tried to blow it up it was blurry and very pixelated. And then she gets this beautiful picture in an email one day from people who don't even know his name! That's my best "why to keep the old photos" story.

[Lecka]

I think it’s fine to cull (throw away) a lot.  You can look with fresh eyes at what you think is worth keeping now.

I did throw away a lot of photo albums from my dad and step-mom’s.  We kept some things.

It would have been better for us if things had been pre-culled.  
 

In reality, my Dad didn't go into assisted living at a really convenient time, I had limited storage, we needed to move pretty fast.  We set aside a box to go through together at a later date when we could be more relaxed and enjoy it (this was for my sisters).  Well, not every photo album made it into this box.  
 

However — my dad and step-mom kept photo albums by their fireplace and rotated them, I think they purposely rotated them before we visited.  My step-mom set our Christmas albums for us to look at at Christmas.

 

I have a lot of great memories of these photo albums even though I didn't keep them.  
 

I think if you want to look at them more now or have them to show grandkids — that’s something you might like during your own lifetime.

 

Reality is there were a lot of things in my dad and step-mom’s house that none of us (my sisters) could keep and couldn’t go with my dad to assisted living.  That was really reality.  I don’t think anyone liked it but honestly photo albums were not among the harder items for me, that realistically were not ones we could keep or store.  I think because I do feel like we have a lot of good pictures.  

[KungFuPanda]

16 hours ago, TexasProud said:

But they are not meaningless to my husband.  Hence the rub.

 

15 hours ago, TexasProud said:

I guess I don't want my kids to have to go through all this crap.  I want it to be as easy for them as possible.

If the rest of your home is so organized that a few bins of photos are all your kids will need to sort, I wouldn’t worry. You can’t Kon Mari other people’s stuff. If they’re meaningful to your husband, let him have this. Everyone gets to have a ‘thing’ that their spouse tolerates with grace. 

[Lecka]

My dad and step-mom’s home was totally clean and well-organized.  There was still just a volume of belongings to go through.  It was not anything where their house was cluttered or disorganized.  It was just — not things we had room for in our own homes.

I don’t know what the answer is, but I don’t know if I think it’s possible to get around it being hard for someone else to go through belongings unless it has already been done.

And then I don’t think it’s fair to expect people to live without things they would like just to make it easier for someone after they pass away.  I think there’s a balance there but a lot of the balance is going to be on the side of living comfortably.

I think I would worry more about going through a grandparent’s belongings versus passing those belongings onto adult children, compared to your own belongings.  I do think it’s okay to look through things, appreciate the memory, and then for many things, get rid of them.  It’s hard to get rid of things but some things are not practical to keep, either.  
 

I also think, in my experience, we were cleaning out a house because my step-mom had died two years previously and my dad needed to move to assisted living.  There’s no way that was going to be an easy process and that is wrapped up in the process for me, because that was the situation.  
 

It was a difficult experience but not because of things I think would have been reasonable to prevent on their side.
 

I think there are times when parents should have done more, but I think we had a good balance but it was still sad and we couldn’t keep things we would have liked to keep, due to reality.  
 

My husband has been in our neighbor’s house, and he thinks it is sad how much she has gotten rid of.  She has just empty bedrooms now, with only basic furniture, in a lot of our house.  I think it works for her and it’s not “actually” sad.  But I don’t think it’s necessary/required to do that for the sake of children.  I think she probably did it for herself in case she does need to move for health reasons.    But she’s in her 80s, and her kids are in their 50s.  I don’t think she would need to have done this 30 years ago “just because.”

 

I think about things like this a lot because we have moved a lot and I have pared down a LOT twice.  Now we are in our forever home and there won’t be any natural point to pare down, and I don’t have to think about things like “well we will move, I don’t want to make it hard on myself.”

 

I think it’s okay to get rid of things, but also there’s no need to be too hard on yourself.  

[TexasProud]

5 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

 

If the rest of your home is so organized that a few bins of photos are all your kids will need to sort, I wouldn’t worry. You can’t Kon Mari other people’s stuff. If they’re meaningful to your husband, let him have this. Everyone gets to have a ‘thing’ that their spouse tolerates with grace. 

As I mentioned it is 3 giant tubs plus all of the photo books.  And no, that is not all. Our attic is full of homeschooling books and baby cribs and toys and such. The shop is FULL of camping equipment (which we use) and tools: a ton of tools and a circular saw and tons of other stuff. My husband has all of the equipment to make bullets. (Not that he has, but he could.) He collects antique guns. ( So yeah, I tolerate a lot with grace. 🙂 He is keeping an inventory of the special ones that he doesn't think the kids should sell (Like the WWI pistol from my family, his granddads gun, a couple of Civil War guns, etc.) Woodworking tools, etc.

The craft closet ( where the other pictures are) is a disaster with probably 50 or more frames in there as well, all of the old Olan Mills pictures from us and other family members. The top of my closet is filled with quilts and afgans (which I did label a few years ago) that one of my grandmothers, both of my husband's grandmothers, and patients have made. I am about to put out the fall ones that my husband's first patient made him.  So, even when you cull the "junk," there will be SO SO SO much for my kids to go through. 

The tractor, the Kabota, the boat ( All of which are already 20 years old and we won't be getting new ones of those. My husband takes meticulous care of those..  His nearly twenty year old truck looks new. People can't believe it is that old. So they will last till we die.) And we are only in our mid 50's, so we don't need to completely purge. But I want to get started. We will die in this house. We aren't moving, other than to an assisted living or whatever at the very end if needed. We have lived here 24 years and may very well live here another 24. So, I don't want it to be empty, but some stuff needs to be gone through, organized, labeled.  

My goal for the month my husband is gone is to go through my journals and notebooks and the giant craft closet (which includes a lot of our pictures, not all. Some are in other closets. If I am really on a roll, then all of the books in the attic.  When the pandemic started I gave away 15 or more boxes for free, but then the lady couldn't take anymore. I still have so much TOG stuff...giant binders. If I give them to Goodwill, they will be dumped in the trash. Makes me sad, but maybe I will just put them in recycling now. 

[Carrie12345]

My position is this: I would be 100% happy to have tons of old photos from my mom to go through rather than decades of clothes, magazines, non-family recipes, miscellaneous papers, or knickknacks. I would be fine with storing boxes or tubs of those to peruse at my leisure, rather than “crap that must be handled now”.

I don’t have a huge stock of my grandparents’ scenery photos, but I have some. No, I don’t look at them often. But, yes, I like it when I come across them and think about the things they saw in their lifetime. Sometimes even without context.

Before dealing with my own print photos, I want to tackle my digital stuff and get them printed in books, because I’m very worried that my kids won’t have *enough photos to randomly flip through with their kids or grandkids on some random rainy Tuesday night when I’m gone. 

[LaughingCat]

My dad passed last year and I got all the photos, including scrapbooks my grandmother made.  I threw out all my Mom's scrapbooks of trips they did after they retired -- by going through each one and taking only the pictures with them in the picture and dumping the books and scenery.  I expect there will be other photo's thrown out eventually but that was the easy choice given the amount of room we had to take things home  (and Mom didn't make all those scrapbooks when we were kids or before).   I plan to scan many of the photos and slides eventually and put them in central location available to any family member (Google is the place I have seen recommended most) -- but am not planning on scanning in a lot of scenery.

Going through my Dad's stuff definitely has made me start going through my own stuff with an eye to keeping what my kids have to go through down -- and I've talked to them about it already too.   I'm not getting rid of anything I still enjoy -- but personally I've found that a lot of times old photos don't hold up for me -- like what would have been a whole scrapbook when it happened might only need a few pages now kind of thing.  

[KungFuPanda]

Don’t they have companies that you can send the boxes to and get the whole shebang digitized? Would that make everyone happy? It seems like a way to have it all. Then get your Dh a digital frame and just let his 5000 scenery photos scroll til the end of time. 

[Kassia]

39 minutes ago, KungFuPanda said:

Don’t they have companies that you can send the boxes to and get the whole shebang digitized? Would that make everyone happy? It seems like a way to have it all. Then get your Dh a digital frame and just let his 5000 scenery photos scroll til the end of time. 

If anyone knows of a company that does this, I'd love to use this service.  

My narcissist mother had all of our family photos - she took them when she left my father.  She knew I wanted them and then had them destroyed when she died.  I try not to let it upset me.

My MIL has all of her family photos plus all of her mother's family photos.  I don't know what we're going to do with them all when she dies.  She has so many photo albums.  I do too, actually, and need to reduce them - at least get rid of things like 20 tries to get a nice Christmas photo.  

 

[katilac]

3 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

Don’t they have companies that you can send the boxes to and get the whole shebang digitized? Would that make everyone happy? It seems like a way to have it all. Then get your Dh a digital frame and just let his 5000 scenery photos scroll til the end of time. 

It can be about .12 or so per photo, which can add up quick although there will be periodic good discounts when you are doing big orders, like $250+). And you have to take them out of the boxes and albums and send them as just stacks of photos. 

I'd just leave it for now. Pull out empty pages and combine some albums to save space, maybe, but space doesn't seem to be at a premium. 

The fun of pulling out old photo albums is that you haven't looked at or thought about those photos in years. He doesn't want scenery photos constantly scrolling, he wants to look at photos from a specific trips and say, remember that? You don't have to do something frequently to value it. 

On 9/25/2022 at 5:46 AM, TexasProud said:

I will, but two of them are still in school (20 and 25) and the other is a messy bachelor at 27.   Don't know that they would care at all. 

They won't be in their 20s forever, don't get rid of stuff based on what they would want right in this moment. 

If, when the time comes, they don't care at all, they'll simply get rid of them. 

3 hours ago, Kassia said:

If anyone knows of a company that does this, I'd love to use this service.  

My narcissist mother had all of our family photos - she took them when she left my father.  She knew I wanted them and then had them destroyed when she died.  I try not to let it upset me.

To the first part: several companies do this, just search "scan my photos" and look for the one that suits you best. My info is dated, but you might want a company like ScanMyPhotos if you're looking for simple scanning of higher quantities, or something more like ScanCafe if you have a lot of damaged photos that need digital repair.

Honestly, though, shipping across all carriers has been so terrible the last few years that I'd be a bit scared of sending mine off. You can do a lot with a good phone camera and a good app, and it's faster than flatbed scanning (and you can worry about which ones you want to edit after you digitize them). 

To the second part: are there any extended relatives you can reach out to for photos? Would she have sent school or holiday photos to siblings or aunts, perhaps? If you're on any social media, make a post and tag relatives, school friends, and old neighbors. You might be surprised. I was able to send someone from college a good dozen photos they were in. 

[Kassia]

1 hour ago, katilac said:

I

To the second part: are there any extended relatives you can reach out to for photos? Would she have sent school or holiday photos to siblings or aunts, perhaps? If you're on any social media, make a post and tag relatives, school friends, and old neighbors. You might be surprised. I was able to send someone from college a good dozen photos they were in. 

No one would have the photos I want (my growing up years).  She had no siblings and we were estranged from extended family (and not local anyway).  After she died I got in contact with one of her cousins through social media and she has old old family photos but all from before I was born.  I do have some photos from junior/senior high and college but none from before that and none of my dad during my first 18 years.  Thank you.  ❤️ 

[Tina]

On 9/25/2022 at 5:40 AM, MEmama said:

Why not ask your kids? Everything changes, and old photos are always fascinating. Even what you might consider boring scenery changes—what an area looked like in Season X in whatever state will look vastly different in the years to come. I wonder sometimes about all my garden and landscape photos, but then I think back to how much things have changed in just the past few decades ...
The quality of the photos is only testament to how much has changed and is a story unto itself. ... though it was disappointing at the time when the film was developed, it makes for a story that could have only happened during a certain era.

My parents just passed, and as we were doing the obits, I had all the paperwork for them.  I discovered that the town we knew they were from wasn't actually set up when they married, but was actually part of the next town over at that time!  Very interesting to this history lover!