Follow Friday: One Family’s Personal Digital Archives Project

It's no secret that I love The Signal, the Library of Congress's digital preservation blog. A recent post there I think is of interest to all genealogists considering digital preservation of a variety of formats: diaries, letters, photographs, slides. The article by Mike Ashenfelder begins here:

In 1958, Vernon James was an adventurous young man from Colorado who landed a job teaching in Germany for the Department of Defense. During his 16-year stint there, he travelled extensively throughout Europe — including several visits behind the Iron Curtain into West Berlin — and he took lots and lots of photos.

Decades came and went and in 2005 Mr. James — who was retired by then — decided to scan his European slides along with the other slides and photos he had accumulated over the years. “I was ignorant of scanning when I started this project,” said James. “I had heard about scanners and bought a scanner with a slide attachment and I started scanning all of my slides.”

The scanner did just what Mr. James wanted it to do: it scanned. When he finished the slides he started on photos: from his wife’s year teaching in Ethiopia, from his wedding and more…a lifetime of personal photos. “After that we started scanning everything I had in the house,” said Mr. James. “I scanned everything from my birth certificate to things from my early childhood and little clippings in the local newspaper,” Mr. James said.

Vernon James (on tricycle) with his brothers and his parents. (1931) 

courtesy The Signal

“I had a brother, Bob, who died in a Japanese prison camp in 1942 and my mother had saved the letters and memorabilia from him and I scanned all of those.

“I scanned letters my wife had written when she was overseas. And it kept on mushrooming. I kept finding more and more letters and documents. My wife has kept a diary starting from back in 1965 and I think I have 35 years of diaries scanned.” Vernon had built up momentum and was being productive. What could go wrong?

To answer that question, I encourage you to read the whole article by clicking here. Well worth our time as we all work on saving our family papers. 

Managing Your Digital Environment the Sassy Jane Way

On Saturday at 2:30 p.m., I'll be presenting "Managing Your Digital Environment" at the California Family History Expo.

This session will show you how to use archival principles to:

1. Organize your information on your computer(s)

2. Use Internet tools for managing your online life

My genealogy organizing principles come from my career as an archivist, where we processed, stored, retrieved, and digitized lots and lots and lots of primary sources. 

Because it's a fairly complex topic, the presentation has a lot of detail that can seem too dense just for one session. So I've put together an e-book, Sassy Jane's Guide to Organizing Your Genealogical Research Using Archival Principles. The $10.50 e-book is a 40-page PDF file. It covers in detail the ideas and solutions from my presentation, including file folder structure; file-naming conventions for downloads, scanned documents and photographs; the authority file; and how to digitally label your family photographs.

To order via PayPal, visit my Web site:

http://www.sassyjanegenealogy.com/organizing-e-book.html

Questions? Email me at: sassy.jane.mail@gmail.com.

New Database: The Registry of the American Solider

Registry of the American Soldier

Photo by Courtesy
November 09, 2007

Happy Fourth, USA! Today's post is from my eagle-eyed husband, who noticed an article in the Army Times about The Registry of the American Soldier, a new database started by The National Museum of the U.S. Army at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. The database was started to "recognize the service and sacrifice of the American Soldier at home and around the world, at war and during peace."

The Registry of the American Soldier provides an opportunity for anyone who served in the U.S. Army to have his or her name and service history placed on record at the Museum. If you served, you need to be in the Registry!

You may also register the name of a family member or friend, if they currently serve, or have served in the U.S. Army, or submit someone from the past.

The Registry will be on permanent display at the Museum, and it will be accessible via the internet for those who cannot visit in person.

The Registry of the American Soldier is a publicly submitted listing of those who served in the U.S. Army. There is no fee for submitting a Soldier's name or photo to the Registry. The Registry is not an official document of the U.S. Government.

Download a form to print out, complete and submit in the mail by clicking here for yourself or any family member, male and female, who served in any branch of the military from 1775 on. Photographs can also be shared either by uploading to the web site or mailed to National Museum of the United States Army; ATTN: Registry of the American Soldier; PO Box 96281; Washington, DC 20090-6281. Mailed photos must include the full name, rank, and hometown of the Army member exactly as it appears on the Registry. Mailed photos will not be returned. 

Search the Registry by clicking on this link.