How to Archive Family Keepsakes: Learn How to Preserve Family Photos, Memorabilia and Genealogy Records

Overall this book is designed for someone who has recently inherited an unorganised collection of ‘stuff’ that includes boxes of documents and/or entire houselots of stuff. If you’re in that situation and a bit bewildered as to where to start, this is the perfect book for you.If you’re like me, and you’ve inherited a few small heirlooms or photos at a time from one grandparent or the other and maybe accumulated your own lifetime’s worth of stuff, this book is less relevant. There were still sections in it that I found useful though.However, none of the links I clicked on worked. I clicked half a dozen, mostly for the worksheets that the author referred to and expected the reader to complete, and a couple for external sites. I understand that the author can’t be blamed if an external site goes offline or changes their address, but it was very frustrating not to be able to access the worksheets, especially when the author generally didn’t describe the contents of the worksheets. The reader is told to ‘complete checkpoint such-and-such by doing the worksheet’ but without the link working, there’s no way for the reader to know what they were supposed to do. For instance, inventory your collection without cataloguing it. What does that even mean?There’s a lot of information on how to care for different types of documents and items, everything from photographs and slides to books and garden tools. There was a LOT of repetition. Personally, I learned to remove the staples, paperclips, etc. from paper documents, to store letters flat instead of folded in envelopes (but still with the envelope) and to take a copy of newspaper articles and store the newspaper clippings far from all other documents. I don’t have much that isn’t from my own lifetime, but I know my mother-in-law has some of her grandfather’s letters and documents.The paper/digital filing system discussion was somewhat interesting. The recommended digital organisation system is not significantly different to what I was already doing, although I don’t have a ‘database’ of my digital documents. I’ve maintained some level of digital filing system since I started doing genealogy, so I’m pretty au fait with that side of things. I’ve been more concerned with the non-digital stuff. I can see that some would need the guidance on this aspect though.I thought the sections on genealogy research were really beyond the scope of this book, and as it’s such an extensive topic, it didn’t seem particularly useful to skim over it in a book about archiving family keepsakes, especially when the author had already covered what to do if you inherited someone else’s genealogy research. What with the sections on what spreadsheets programs to use and what tasks to use spreadsheets for, how to do citations, when to use a database and which one, what to consider when choosing your genealogy software, how to subscribe to genealogy blogs, etc., this felt more like this book should have been called ‘Everything you need to know when you’re suddenly appointed as the Family Historian’.As I say, if you suddenly find yourself with boxes or houselots of things to sort through and/or you suddenly find yourself the Family Historian with no previous experience or knowledge, this book is perfect. For someone who has a slowly growing collection of heirlooms that she just wants to catalogue, it was only somewhat helpful.

I bought this book because I have two big boxes of letters, photos, and items going back to the late 1700's. I found the sorting methods and ideas quite helpful.For instance, the idea that one should begin by naming the collection made me realize that I actually had two collections jmbled together. That of my great-great-great grandfather, and that of my great-aunt. They are connected, but one is very much the collection of the legal and financial papers of a highly successful, hardworking man from a prominent family, and the other is a collection of letters and photos gathered by an eldest daughter who never married and who in many ways was a second mother to many many people in the family. My great-great-great grandfather kept wills, deeds, and court documents. My aunt has every letter ever written to her by her mother, as well as those written by family members who moved away, or were away for a while. She's the one who kept the graduation programs, the funeral leaflets, the notes and the photographs, even two wills handwritten by women, and witnessed by other women in the family.She has many other ideas that have helped me think about how to do things--and she has also confirmed my instincts to preserve things (see above) that some in my family think is old trash. Before I bought this book, I had already written to my county historical society, with a general list of possible items, and I had a marvellous letter in return about which items they would especially be interested--and where to archive the rest.This is the sort of book written by someone with a great deal of experience. Lots of info and ideas. These can clarify or help clarify what to do with those marvellous boxes and trucks of mystery items--but the actual archiving and protecting is a huge amount of work. If you don't want to invest the time, find someone in your family who does.

Well packed, arrived promptly. Lots of good advice and ideas. Perhaps a little 'long winded' at times, but nonetheless a useful book.

I cannot read the small print, so useless.

Very helpful. Points you in the right direction on how to preserve your items.

I love this book and have used it as a resource when determining the date of some old family photos. Very informative and interesting to read.

Did not like this book difficult to navigate. Would not have purchased it had I seen it in a shop