Wisdom Wednesday: These Are a Few of My Favorite (Genealogy) Things

I had a great time talking to Marcia Holstrom’s genealogy class yesterday in Campbell, California. I’m very glad we had enough time to go into depth on some of the finer points of scanning and organizing the results of our research.

Here are links to some of the things we talked about:

Graphics Software: 

GraphicConverter, which has many of the functions of PhotoShop, is available for Macs only as a shareware program at LemkeSoft.com. 

I have not used it personally, but Easy Graphic Converter looks similar and runs on all versions of Windows.

A bit more expensive but with more features and functionality is the home version of Photoshop from Adobe, called Photoshop Elements 9, available for Windows and Mac.

External Hard Drive:

Leading manufacturers of external hard drives include Seagate, Western Digital, and LaCie. I use the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk 1 TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive as my desktop external hard drive for backups. It comes with Windows-based backup software and connects to your computer via USB cable. I also use the Western Digital My Passport Essential 500 GB as a small portable external hard drive. It also connects via USB cable and also draws its power from your computer, eliminating the need for a separate power source.

Scanner:

I have a scanner as part of a multi-function printer, but increasingly I use a small, lightweight, and very portable scanner I bought this summer for a research trip. It has all the functions of a desktop scanner. Its portability makes it invaluable when visiting relatives and it also works nicely set up in front of the tv so that you can scan while you watch tv. The model I use is the Canon LiDE200 Color Image Scanner – $80 at Amazon. For $130, there’s a faster, newer version of the scanner available – the Canon CanoScan LiDE 700F Color Image Scanner.

Archival Supplies:

Hollinger Metal Edge is the leading supplier of genuine archival supplies. All of their products are very trustworthy.Light Impressions carries genuine archival supplies for storage your vintage photographs. Unfortunately, their order fulfillment for small personal orders is very, very poor.

My new e-book:

My e-book on today’s topic, Sassy Jane’s Guide to Organizing Your Genealogical Research Using Archival Principles, is available for $10.50. The e-book is 40 pages and includes all of the organizing principles we covered today, with specific screenshots for illustrations. To order, email me at sassy.jane.mail [at] gmail.com or visit PayPal.

Feel free to use the comments button below for any questions you may have. Thanks for having me speak - I enjoyed it.