• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

Write it down

A

Alberta

Super Moderator
Staff member
We have many posts from members say they wished they had listened to their parents but as youngsters were not interested in parents lives.
As far as my children go that's tough because they will inherit my diaries,lol.
I began keeping a diary over 30 years ago.Nothing earth shattering in them quite the opposite but handy when one of the family asks what happened at a certain time.
Each day has the weather.
The rest of the pages over 30 years have been full of.
Dinner menus, shopping, state of the garden,boys illnesses,birthdays, christmases, attending our sons graduation at Coventry Uni. Sons weddings , the joy of being woken at 2am to be told I was a grandma to a baby girl, and 2 years later a grandson.
What cars we all bought over the years
Holidays in Devon, seeing the French Riviera, and paddling in the Med, hearing the roar of Niagra falls before I saw them
There is also a lot of sadness in them losing my parents and over the years 4 of my beloved Yorkies and then myself, my son and my husband all battling and coming through Cancer.
Pretty boring to most but when asked what year did I see the Cure concert Mom or from husband, how long have we had this carpet, Trust Mom she has all the info to hand,lol.
 
Last edited:
I'm glad my mother wrote down a lot of her memories. there are still things I wish I had asked family members , it's too late now.
I do keep all the old calendars, the long ones where you can write hospital appointments and birthdays etc.
rosie.
 
I always had a diary for Christmas but never maintained it for very long, but when my kids started to go to University I decided to write them a weekly letter and this I have maintained for the past 15 years. I know they have kept these " rambling " notes which I hope they will look back on with fondness, the one gap will be when my youngest daughter had to complete her 3rd year in Sydney and I had to email her weekly letter.
 
Nan gave me an old empty diary about 7inches by 4inches and I started writing down stuff, for about a week.! I put the birthdays in. I loved it though. It was black fettered leather looking, with gilt edges and very fine pages. Each month started with a tiny colour picture with a religious text. Wish I had kept it. When I was tracing my birth family I wrote everything down but there was so many if them I gave up but I have 3 books so far. A Family Tree Box I was given as a present which is full up and I made 3 photo albums too. With notes. Our grandchildren write things down on loose paper, and they draw and make up stories in books they make. The grandson is now welded to his laptop so that's that. Their mum keeps everything though. I wish Nan had kept her dad's songs and his wine recipes. When grandad died she remarried, turned the page and everything got burnt. Even photos. Mum was seething.
 
i think most of us grew up in an age where children were seen but not heard but maybe catching the odd bits of family gossip that we didnt really understand...mom was not very forthcoming with tales of her past but dad was happy to tell all and i am so glad he did because if he hadnt i would most likely have never found out that at the age of 8 months his mom and her 2 young sisters were orphaned and taken in by family members and in his moms case a family friend...i have been researching and am still doing so my family ancestry for over 10 years now which is all in a large box file should any of my children want to pick it up one day and try to make sense of it :D:D but as with many of us my biggest regret is that i personally did not take photos of the street where i grew up before it was demolished although having said that through many years of searching i have found quite a few...too busy growing up..working having children etc and in our defence just how many of us on here really thought that when we reached a certain age we would become interested in our ancestry.. dad was a keen photographer when he could afford a camera so i am so lucky to have a large collection of family photos taken from the 1950s and he always wrote on the back who they were and through ancestry trees have found quite a few of my ancestors from the1800s...these photos are priceless to me and it does upset me that a lot of people just throw them out when their older rellies pass on...you would be surprised at how many my skip diving brother has found over the years:D so my advise is do not throw out any research material or photographs you have because although we may not think it now one day in years to come a family member will be so grateful to have them

lyn
 
Astoness said:
i think most of us grew up in an age where children were seen but not heard but maybe catching the odd bits of family gossip that we didnt really understand...mom was not very forthcoming with tales of her past but dad was happy to tell all and i am so glad he did because if he hadnt i would most likely have never found out that at the age of 8 months his mom and her 2 young sisters were orphaned and taken in by family members and in his moms case a family friend...i have been researching and am still doing so my family ancestry for over 10 years now which is all in a large box file should any of my children want to pick it up one day and try to make sense of it :D:D but as with many of us my biggest regret is that i personally did not take photos of the street where i grew up before it was demolished although having said that through many years of searching i have found quite a few...too busy growing up..working having children etc and in our defence just how many of us on here really thought that when we reached a certain age we would become interested in our ancestry.. dad was a keen photographer when he could afford a camera so i am so lucky to have a large collection of family photos taken from the 1950s and he always wrote on the back who they were and through ancestry trees have found quite a few of my ancestors from the1800s...these photos are priceless to me and it does upset me that a lot of people just throw them out when their older rellies pass on...you would be surprised at how many my skip diving brother has found over the years:D so my advise is do not throw out any research material or photographs you have because although we may not think it now one day in years to come a family member will be so grateful to have them

lyn
Click to expand...
we keep all our old photos..... i am sure i have seen him lyn.1606638507957.png
 
Last edited:
Having written it down we publish it on a website, making wonderful connections around the world and adding to the story!

But how do we ensure that that information endures? The big companies might not last forever and in any case their policies might change, (I think I have some blog comments out there, posted when the service was free but when they introduced charges I could no longer add posts, however the old stuff remained).

How does this site function? Are the bills paid by 'immortal' youngsters? Is more than one person able to keep it active?

As mentioned I have my own site, some of the content I am sure is of value historically, but what happens when I stop paying the bills? I have images of the website, of course, but they might last only as long as the house clearance.

Here is an idea: Suppose there was a charitable foundation that paid all the website bills and held the domain names as proxy. Individual webmasters would still have full control over content, (subject to the foundation's 'code of practice'). Individuals would pay the charity, plus an insurance fee perhaps. The charity would be able to accept endowments and grants too, unlike the individuals. Following the inevitable demise of the individual webmasters the foundation would continue to adminster these sites that otherwise would just die too.

Perhaps something like this exists already, please tell me. Perhaps there are better ways, please tell us.
 
Spargone said:
Having written it down we publish it on a website, making wonderful connections around the world and adding to the story!

But how do we ensure that that information endures? The big companies might not last forever and in any case their policies might change, (I think I have some blog comments out there, posted when the service was free but when they introduced charges I could no longer add posts, however the old stuff remained).

How does this site function? Are the bills paid by 'immortal' youngsters? Is more than one person able to keep it active?

As mentioned I have my own site, some of the content I am sure is of value historically, but what happens when I stop paying the bills? I have images of the website, of course, but they might last only as long as the house clearance.

Here is an idea: Suppose there was a charitable foundation that paid all the website bills and held the domain names as proxy. Individual webmasters would still have full control over content, (subject to the foundation's 'code of practice'). Individuals would pay the charity, plus an insurance fee perhaps. The charity would be able to accept endowments and grants too, unlike the individuals. Following the inevitable demise of the individual webmasters the foundation would continue to adminster these sites that otherwise would just die too.

Perhaps something like this exists already, please tell me. Perhaps there are better ways, please tell us.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, nothing is in perpetuity irrespective of the historical value you place on it. Like many old building they will only endure as long as there is a use for them, and someone somewhere is able to pay the bills.

Face Book will archive a page of an individual who has passed away in memory of. However how long face book will be about is anyone guess.
 
This is a lost generation, nearly everyone has a mobile phone and takes photo's of their children etc but do they ever print them out? almost certainly the answer for the majority is going to be no.
The photo's are put on their facebook page or whatever but it's not the same. Children will grow up and have no actual photo's of themselves as toddlers or their parents when they were younger. Just images on someone's online account that sooner or later will more than likely disappear.
 
Web storage is cheap, it almost certainly costs more to purge and recover space than to reclaim it. Nevertheless there are costs involved. A charitable foundation has the potential to maintain active ownership of websites, possibly changing webservers as hosting companies make changes.

A charity could have an income from 'live' users, which could include an insurance surcharge, or operate an expanding business model, new 'live' users paying for the 'dead'. 'Live' users might give directly to the charity or leave bequests. No doubt the charity could bid for 'heritage' funds too and of course they should be getting tax reliefs and discounts from the hosting companies.

There must be masses of digital photographs lost forever. Facebook is a pain to use anyway. We lost something when the family photo album fell into disuse because memories need to be dragged out and re-membered. The book comes out on a rainy day and all the folk-lore with it - the ancient verbal tradition in action.
 
Pedrocut said:
Digital pictures and videos can be saved by various means. They can be duplicated quickly. Replacing the family album
will be, for example, the memory stick.
Click to expand...
I don't think that people will be looking back at events. Lots of the technology now seems to be about experiencing being in the event.
 
Pedrocut said:
Digital pictures and videos can be saved by various means. They can be duplicated quickly. Replacing the family album
will be, for example, the memory stick.
Click to expand...
I have just cleared a house out. I found 15 memory sticks, then someone else found one in what we thought was an empty box. Paper records can be leafed through in seconds, the same with printed photos. Digital data can be a pain to find for the person that created it, how can we expect others to hunt for the 'good' stuff?

My emphasis on websites is that here the material has been edited and linked into a narrative and put in a known, searchable space.

Take this site as an example. What is it's survival plan? Could it be reliant on just one 35 year-old's bank paying out on a standing order each year? If that was the case this whole site could vanish overnight.
 
Spargone said:
Web storage is cheap, it almost certainly costs more to purge and recover space than to reclaim it. Nevertheless there are costs involved. A charitable foundation has the potential to maintain active ownership of websites, possibly changing webservers as hosting companies make changes.

A charity could have an income from 'live' users, which could include an insurance surcharge, or operate an expanding business model, new 'live' users paying for the 'dead'. 'Live' users might give directly to the charity or leave bequests. No doubt the charity could bid for 'heritage' funds too and of course they should be getting tax reliefs and discounts from the hosting companies.

There must be masses of digital photographs lost forever. Facebook is a pain to use anyway. We lost something when the family photo album fell into disuse because memories need to be dragged out and re-membered. The book comes out on a rainy day and all the folk-lore with it - the ancient verbal tradition in action.
Click to expand...
Sounds like a bureaucratic nightmare controlled by accountants.
 
Pedrocut said:
Digital pictures and videos can be saved by various means. They can be duplicated quickly. Replacing the family album
will be, for example, the memory stick.
Click to expand...
It's just not the same thing though is it, nothing can replace a traditional family photo and something on a memory stick doesn't lend itself to instant viewing. You can post a photo of your new born child to your ageing aunty but will she be able to plug it in a USB slot when she doesn't own anything to actually plug it in to.

We have a photo frame on our wall with our children & grandchildren on it. We don't need to plug something in, it was right there for us to see all day long through those terrible months of lockdown
 
The mention of the memory stick is more to do with the enormous amount of pictures taken today in digital form, and a means of saving them for posterity. You could obtain a print of any of those you particularly like and display them in frames.

We have seen the benefit of scanning very old pictures into digital form on the Forum. Members have enhanced these pictures sometimes in remarkable ways to delight of others.
 
Pedrocut said:
The mention of the memory stick is more to do with the enormous amount of pictures taken today in digital form, and a means of saving them for posterity. You could obtain a print of any of those you particularly like and display them in frames.
Click to expand...
But that's the point I'm making, people are not printing them out, my son is prime example, everything is on his phone from when the children were born to now aged 9 & 10 but there are no photo's in his house. We go to Tesco and use their instant print service.
 
Last edited:
izzy eckerslike said:
But that's the point I'm making, people are not printing them out, my son is prime example, everything is on his phone from when the children were born to now aged 9 & 10. We go to Tesco and use their instant print service.
Click to expand...
interesting subject that got me thinking izzy....how many of us on here have got photos of our ancestors taken 100 years ago in fact how many photos have we got of our parents at a young age...i have only one of my dad when he was about 3 months old and one of our mom at about 10...then they stop until they marry...they were born in..1929..back in the day you had to pretty well healed to afford to have your own camera or go to a studio and pay a photographer to take family photos..my daughter and son in law have taken thousands of family photos on their phones since grandson james was born 5 years ago but they then choose which ones they like best and have them printed off which is very cheap to do and frame them..their hall stairs and landing is packed with photos a few in their bedroom and a few in the living room..i myself have a unit of framed family photos... although i know some dont bother but think you would be surprised at just how many youngsters do this...

lyn
 
Tinpot said:
Sounds like a bureaucratic nightmare controlled by accountants.
Click to expand...
One can set up a website and domain name, just as now, but the bills get paid by the charity. While one is living one pays the charity.

Imagine you have a dog. Every week you go out to Tesco and buy tins of dog food, the dog gets fed and lives. You drop dead, the dog doesn't get fed and it drops dead too. Another option is that you pay the local dog charity every week and it pops in and feeds your dog... even after you have dropped dead and have stopped paying them.

It's about having some sort of succession plan. There are thousands of websites created by individuals, often taking no payment, which encapsulate thousands of hours of research, collation and writing which only survive as long as the owner pays for them.

Imagine if every library in the world received instructions to destroy all books by author A.N. Other when they died, as if none of their works had ever existed.

This is a real problem that exists now. I have saved internet links, the equivalent of book references, that are now dead (like the parrot), the sites they linked to do not exist anymore. JR Hartley might have found "Fly Fishing" on Yellow Pages but if he had put it on his own website his son would never find it once his dad stopped paying the bills.

Suggested solutions please!
 
Looking at the state some of our old photos get into - creases - tears - fading - I prefer digital copies on memory sticks and cards. I can print copies off if I need to.
 
Just a thought ... at the end of this month it will be the 10th anniversary of the time when some Russian hackers were active and all the photos on the forum were lost ... :rolleyes:
 
Spargone raises an interesting Question about websites. There really should be some way to save this Forum for posterity. It contains a mine of information for local history research.

What if you have 10,000 pictures ? It would not be possible to look at the pictures in albums.
 
I keep thousands of images in album folders as can be seen in the image of a folder on my network drive. Note that the dark scroll bar on the right is only half-way down ... the folder is several screens long. I generally know where a pic probably is and then search it ... it can take time ... and it's certainly not as well organised as I would have liked ... ;)
Albums.jpg
My family pics are in similar folders and albums ...
 
Pedrocut said:
Digital pictures and videos can be saved by various means. They can be duplicated quickly. Replacing the family album
will be, for example, the memory stick.
Click to expand...
Pedro, this is what I am trying to do! It’s easy, inexpensive and compact. I plan to give my children one at the end/start of each year!
I believe you suggested this earlier to back up files.
 
izzy eckerslike said:
But that's the point I'm making, people are not printing them out, my son is prime example, everything is on his phone from when the children were born to now aged 9 & 10 but there are no photo's in his house. We go to Tesco and use their instant print service.
Click to expand...
Just a thought, my wife takes many many pics with her iPad Pro and iPhone. She has a service through Apple where her photo files are backed up for .99 cents per month in their cloud. I am going to check to see if there is away to capture her file. I am sure Apple will be around after we are gone.
 
Richarddye said:
Just a thought, my wife takes many many pics with her iPad Pro and iPhone. She has a service through Apple where her photo files are backed up for .99 cents per month in their cloud. I am going to check to see if there is away to capture her file. I am sure Apple will be around after we are gone.
Click to expand...
Specifically on photo files could an arrangement be made with a Birmingham educational institution/university to hold back up files for open access for research purposes?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top