Capturing and Preserving the Story of an Old Family Photo
While going through old family photos, I came across a picture that showed my grandmother as a young woman. The photo perfectly captured her mischievous personality and made me nostalgic for the fun times I had with her growing up. I knew my extended family would love to see this forgotten gem and might also be able to fill in the story behind this photo. So I decided to digitize and share it before the memory got lost to time.
There are many ways to digitize photos, and I’ve used nearly all of them. One of my favorite tools for digitizing single photos is the Shotbox. Using this tool, I can leave old photos in an album and use my iPhone or camera to snap a picture that has no glare. This is a great way to protect fragile mementos.
With the photo digitized, I knew this photo stood a chance of being seen by future generations. However, I faced two new hurdles: 1) the digital photo had today’s date along with the GPS location of my house since it was taken on my iPhone, and 2) I didn’t know all the details behind the picture.
So, I did what many people are doing and posted this photo on my family’s private Facebook group. Within 24 hours, the photo caused a frenzy of reaction, and information poured out from my family who were overjoyed to see the picture and supply the missing links.
wedding shower held at Franklin Babb’s farm on May 31,1945. He went off to WWII soon after.
I was fortunate to have living relatives who could fill in the blanks and I wanted to make sure that information was captured with the photo for all generations (present and future) to enjoy.
There are many ways to store a photo and tag information.
Some people organize them with folder details on their computer or Dropbox; some use a photo tagging app like Google Photos.
I use MemoryWeb*. This photo app is focused on linking family relations and making sure that “back-of-the-photo” details travel with photos.
Using MemoryWeb’s tagging, I was able to:
- correct the date from today to May 31, 1945
- tag each family member
- enter the location of the picture
- comment about the wedding shower
- send the picture to Facebook, FamilySearch,
Ancestry, individual family members with the newly- corrected tags
No matter how you choose to preserve and store your family pictures, digitizing them and gathering “back-of-the-photo” details is the most important step to take now.
I love that my kids and future generations will know that Grandma Mary was busted for giving bunny ears to her little brother at his wedding shower.
* Full disclosure, I am one of MemoryWeb’s three founders, but I can honestly say that I use our app because it is the only one that links details to photos forever.
About MemoryWeb
MemoryWeb brings generations of photos together in one organized place, creates interactive connections between them, and preserves “back-of-the-photo” details forever.
Special Features
- Interactive family trees
- Interactive photo maps
- Personal memory capsule with all photos, albums, locations, age scroll, and family tree
- People sharing
- Memories albums and feeds created from your photos
- Share photos with tag details on the picture and/or embedded inside the file
- All your photos and tags (even ones we add for you) are exportable from your MemoryWeb account.
Other Helpful Features
- Facial recognition and people tag carryovers from social media
- Automatic tagging for location, date, album(s)
- Edit our tags and/or add your own
- Direct photo uploads: iOS devices, Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, Dropbox, computers, FamilySearch
- Upload RAW and TIFF photos
- Upload PDF files (from FamilySearch)
- Album sharing and collaboration
- Your photos are stored safely in the cloud, freeing up 99% of the storage they once consumed
- View photos even when offline
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