Caring for Old Photographs

One question I am often asked is how to best store and care for old family photographs.  It is a challenge many family historians face - we become the family repository (if we are lucky) and our store of old,sometimes antique, photographs grows.

So here are the basics.

• The best place to store photographs is in a cool, dry place. Attics, sheds and basements are not good places to store your photographs.  A cardboard box in the shed or garage is just an invitation for mice to make a nest.
  
• Avoid storing photos extreme temperatures or in extremely high or low humidity. High humidity promotes mold growth and low humidity promotes brittle photos.
• Avoid storing photos in direct light - this will fade the images.
• Avoid magnetic or glue photo albums - these will discolor and ultimately destroy your photos.
  

The best storage is an archival safe box - but what does “archival safe” mean when it comes to storing your photographs? Archival safe means the photo box, album, sleeve, etc is lignin-free, acid-free, PVC-free and has a neutral pH to prevent the degradation of your photos.

Photo boxes are a popular way to store family photographs, and they are available from many camera shops and other stores. Even when you are using archival safe photo boxes, however, there are ways to further safe guard your precious photographs.

• Do not over fill the photo box. Stuffing “just one more” into the box risks scratching or tearing of your photo.
• Do not under fill your photo box either. Under filling a box encourages bowing of the photographs.  Avoid this by using the correct size box or use a spacer to if needed.
• Store similar sized photos together. This prevents excessive shifting that could scratch your photographs.
• Use archival photo sleeves to further protect your oldest or damaged photographs. Sleeves come in a variety of sizes.  Place only one photo in a sleeve and use a sleeve that is slightly larger than the photograph.  You do not want the edges of your photo extending beyond the sleeve.
• Over-sized photos?  Store in an appropriately sized flat box. Archival photo boxes come in a variety of sizes.
• Remember when you are handling your photographs, make sure your work area is clean and dry and your hands are free of any lotions or oils.

Disaster plan.  Sometimes the unimaginable happens and a natural disaster destroys your precious heirlooms.  A little disaster planning can prevent the loss of all your precious photos.

• Have copies made and store them off-site.  Distribute copies among other family members for safe keeping.
• Digitize photographs and back them up in cloud storage and/or on flash drive.  Always have backups of anything precious.
• This can apply to other physical items.  Take good photos of other precious items and heirlooms.  If Great Great Grandma's vase gets broken or her brooch is lost or stolen, at least you will have good photos of them.  
• Remember to record the 'who/what/when/where/why' in as much detail as you can.  It is all very well if you know this bundle of photographs were taken during your parents honeymoon at Hall's Gap in 1968 - but do your children and grandchildren know?  Will those details be handed down to whoever inherits your photo collection?  One of my 'lockdown projects' in the last few years as been to create a contents list for each photo box I own, and to go through all my digital photos adding details to the photo title.
  

 

Searching Deeper into Ancestry

Ancestry has one of the largest databases of genealogical records available, but do you take full advantage of what the database has to offer?  Hidden amongst the bigger, shinier records like BMDs, Census and Convict records are many smaller record collections that are often overlooked.  These records often don't show up in the first few pages of results when we are researching, and so we often fail to locate them until we dive deeper, narrow our results, to go exploring areas like the card catalogue and somehow stumble across them.

For example, did you know that Ancestry includes Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers 1567-1936?  The card catalogue contains the following description of these records :

About England & Wales, Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers, 1567-1936
This collection is mainly comprised of birth, marriage, and death registers from non-conformist congregations and churches in England and Wales that were turned over to the Registrar General following the Non-Parochial Register Act of 1840 and a later request in 1857. It also includes non-parochial registers from the Church of England at St Petersburg, Chelsea and Greenwich Hospitals, and registers from burial grounds and non-denominational cemeteries. You will also find Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist birth certificates. Details found in the records will vary depending on the event and the time period.

After locating this set of records in the Ancestry Card Catalogue (the dataset includes some 5.7 million records), you can then search this set of records specifically.  By drilling down in this manner I have located a number of relevant records, and my family tree now included Methodists, Quakers and Baptists that I never knew about and had not found in my general searches. 

Similarly, I regularly browse the card catalogue to see what new record sets have been added and what smaller sets of records I have overlooked.  By drilling down in the card catalogue to look only at records for Victoria, Australia I have found several record sets I had not known were available.  These include the following :
Australia, Army Militia Service Records, 1901-1940
Australia, Royal Australian Air Force Personnel Files, 1921-1948
Victoria, Australia, Battle to Farm, 1919-1935
Victoria, Australia, Divorce Records, 1860-1940
Victoria, Australia, Coroner Inquest Deposition Files, 1840-1925
Victoria, Australia, Asylum Records, 1853-1940
Victoria, Australia, Wills and Probate Records, 1841-2009
Victoria, Australia, Cemetery Records and Headstone Transcriptions, 1844-1997

Each of these records sets, when searched individually, gave me new information about my family I had previously failed to find.  Several I had previously only located indexes - such as asylum and divorce records - so locating the full record files was particularly exciting.

So take a closer look at Ancestry, drill down through the records, and see what specific record sets are available - you never know what you might find!

#52Ancestors - Week 32 - At the Library

It is always useful to know what your local (plus State and National) library has to offer you as a family history researcher.  So make sure you are a member of your local library and head on down to see just what they have to offer you.

My local library has a number of resources on offer.  Each library branch has a significant Local History collection available.  While many of these resources cannot be borrowed, they are available to use within the library building, and relevant pages can be photocopied.

They offer free access to Ancestry Library Edition, via the library's public computers or using you own device logged in to the free library wifi.  Ancestry Library Edition allows access to all the records available through a paid worldwide subscription.  The only major difference is it does not allow you to create and update your own online family tree, and it must be used onsite (you cannot access this database from home).

My local library also has access to free online magazines.  Amongst the hundreds of titles available are Who Do You Think You Are, Family Tree US, Family Tree UK, Traces, and a number of BBC History magazines.  All can be read online anywhere in the world by logging in with your library card number and PIN, and it is available free.

The library holds various Family History talks, and the class notes from all those talks are available on the library website.  There are also a number of useful links for Family History researchers and downloadable family record sheets.  There is also this blog.

Library staff are always available to assist with accessing these resources and help you get started using them.  And it is all free.

#52Ancestors - Week 31 - Help

For many of our ancestors, there would have been times when they needed help.  For many who fell on hard times, help from family, friends and neighbors may have been a necessity.  For some help could be obtained from charities, guilds and other sources.  For many, the workhouse was the place of last resort when they were in need of help and unable to find it anywhere else.

The origins of parochial poor relief extend back at least as far as the fifteenth century.  With the decline of the monasteries, care for the poor gradually moved from its traditional voluntary framework to become a compulsory tax administered at the parish level.  Over several centuries the enactment of the Poor Laws saw the rise of the Workhouse, with few other sources of help available.

Stories about the Workhouse abound.  People ended up in the workhouse for a variety of reasons, usually because they were too poor, old or ill to support themselves. This may have resulted from a lack of work during periods of high unemployment, or someone having no family willing or able to provide care for them when they became elderly or sick. Unmarried pregnant women were often disowned by their families and the workhouse was the only place they could go during and after the birth of their child. Prior to the establishment of public mental asylums in the mid-nineteenth century (and in some cases even after that), the mentally ill and mentally handicapped poor were often consigned to the workhouse. Workhouses, though, were never prisons, and entry into them was generally a voluntary although often painful decision for those in need of help.

Admission into the workhouse first required an interview to establish the applicant's circumstances. This was most often undertaken by a Relieving Officer who would visit each part of the Workhouse union on a regular basis. Formal admission into the workhouse proper was authorised by the Board of Guardians at their weekly meetings, where an applicant could summoned to justify their application - an intimidating experience for those in need of help.

 

#52Ancestors - Week 30 - Teams

The prompt of 'Teams' immediately turns my thoughts to sport, to ancestors who played as part of a sporting team, especially as I watch the Commonwealth Games on TV each evening. 

During precious leisure hours, our ancestors may have played - or been involved in - a variety sports, many involving teams.  Cricket, various forms of football and other team sports may have been played by our ancestors.  Some of the sports our ancestors played have survived almost unchanged, while others have evolved greatly over the years and others still are rarely if ever played today.

Finding the evidence of our ancestors involvement in sporting teams and be challenging.  Newspapers are a great source of information, with match reports, player profiles and statistics often included, especially in local newspapers.  Administration records and meeting minutes may still exist, and long-standing sporting teams which still exist today often have many old records, rolls, trophies and memorabilia on display or stored in archives.

Even if they were not themselves players on a team, our ancestors may still have been involved.  Were they part of the administration of a team or involved in umpiring, scoring, grounds-keeping or maintenance?  Or were they supporters, attending matches when they could, cheering on the players? 

Discovering information about any teams our ancestors belonged to or supported helps us to flesh out their lives, adding detail to their likes and dislikes, giving colour to our knowledge of their daily lives.

Who Do You Think You Are Magazine

The latest issue of Who Do You Think You Are magazine is now available free online for Campaspe Library members via our subscription to Libby eMagazines. 

Inside this month's issue 

• Online parish registers Our essential regional guide to church records and where to find them
• Royal Navy records How to use muster records to trace naval careers
• Reader story: Sally George discovered a love story that beat the odds in an old collection of letters
• Dance Halls: Caroline Roberts steps back into the past to explore where our ancestors went for a night out
• Children's Homes Peter Higginbotham reveals the best places to look for records of children who were placed in care
• Plus: The best websites for finding historic maps and how to use the Ogilby Muster to trace First World War soldiers

#52Ancestors - Week 29 - Fun Fact

Misspeld Knames are a commun probblem for reeserchors.

It constantly surprises me how often I hear fellow family history researchers say "That can't be MY ancestor - the spelling of the name is wrong."  It invariably launches me into a speech about how common spelling variations are and how much we need to be aware of them.  Fun Fact - there is not a single surname in my family tree - and not many first names either - that do not have multiple spelling variations.  That includes Green (Greene, Gren, Grene), Clark (Clarke, Clerk, Clerke) and Pike (Pyke, Peck, Pack).

In times when literacy levels were low, how a name sounded was far more important then how it was spelled.  Generally your ancestor was not the person who actually recorded their name.  You can bet that those who actually did the recording — the census takers, clerks, tax collectors, etc — didn’t stop to ask about spelling, or check they had heard a name correctly.

People also changed their names for a variety of reasons.  We need to consider Anglicization of names – especially non-British names.  First names as well as surnames often changed, especially around the time a person moved from one area to another.  Local dialects and foreign accents also often made a significant difference, especially if the person recording the name wasn't familiar with the accent or dialect.  How our ancestors were known by those around them may not match earlier records.

Many first names were truncated or written in short form.  William recorded as Wm, Patrick as Pat or Patk, James as Js and so on.  You also have common shortened names – William as Bill, James as Jimmy, Elizabeth as Eliza or Liz or Beth or Betty. 

When we are researching we need to consider how well the search engine of any database might cope with alternate spelling, truncation and so on.  Several searches may be necessary to ensure you don’t miss potential matches.

Another fun fact I have been caught by in my research.  In some areas, particularly around Germany, two names were often given to a child at birth or baptism.  The first name - what we often refer to as the given name - was a spiritual name, usually to honour a favourite saint, and it was often used repeatedly in families.  It was the second name – or middle name - by which the person was actually known.  That's how I ended up with 4 brothers - August Wilhelm, August Carl, August Friedrich and August Johanne.