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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.
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
 
Sounds like a bureaucratic nightmare controlled by accountants.
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 ...
 
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.
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.
 
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.
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.
 
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.
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?
 
I did keep a Boots diary from1958 to 1967 and here are three of the earliest entries. I am aged 15 and a bit. Thursday 2nd January 1958: "Went to Lewis's sale. Bought a tub of Gropax seed, giant chabaud carnations mixed. Mom had cold and stayed in bed all day. Bought also 12 plant labels for 4 1/2d which were glass and also a pot of cold glaze for 1s6d. Went to Nan's in the morning and did some errands for her. Paperwhites still flowering." Friday 3rd January 1958: "Mom still ill but better. Went to town again in the afternoon. Went round Lewis's sale but did not buy anything. Went round the market and bought a plate of cockles. Went to Nan's and did a few errands for her. Roman hyacinths still in flower. 8 bells on the flower stem. Very cold all day" A little bit more interesting; Friday 10th January 1958; "Had 8 out of 10 for maths. Birmingham Symphony Orchestra came to Camp Hill School. Finished off motor. Attached brushes to stand. Cut off flower stem on Roman hyacinth. Watched television including Angel Pavement. Rained all evening. Paperwhites still well in flower." Life got a bit more interesting later. Dave.
 
I don’t quite know how it happened – perhaps they found it or perhaps someone recommended it to them – but my Home Guard website is regularly archived by the British Library. (When I say “regularly“ I think they are a long way behind at the moment but they have assured me in the past that, eventually, it will be recorded in its final form). As a result of that it will, at least in theory, be available to future researchers in some sort of perpetuity.

This thought is a big consolation when I continue to spend on it many hours a week of whatever time remains to me!

Chris
 
Last year our Grandaughter asked us what would we like for Christmas, we said "Photos please!" She bought us a huge album and gathered lots of photos from family. She gives us packs of photos which she's had printed and also she sends some on email.
I don't want to use Facebook or the Cloud! I can see my large box of photos at the moment, memory sticks and cards can fail, last night there was a message on my tablet that the card was corrupt and is now read only.
rosie,
 
Last year our Grandaughter asked us what would we like for Christmas, we said "Photos please!" She bought us a huge album and gathered lots of photos from family. She gives us packs of photos which she's had printed and also she sends some on email.
I don't want to use Facebook or the Cloud! I can see my large box of photos at the moment, memory sticks and cards can fail, last night there was a message on my tablet that the card was corrupt and is now read only.
rosie,
I think memory sticks & cards can become corrupt if you don`t unmount them before removing from pc.
 
Did you ever see that film I think it was called the collector starring Timothy Spall. He collected and classified everything. We print the grand children's photos out, I did solid albums of my birth and adoptive families and they are great ice breakers and talking points and the bases for arguments. I have a friend an artist who compiles family trees and family life events and someone reproduces them in book form. In our family research everything is getting transposed to microflIm and on line, often incorrectly. Church registers and certificate copies are much more accurate. I never used the Ancestry type on line family tree, all my trees and there are many are on paper in pencil. I have some on screen back ups. Even if in the future paper trees should they survive, may be viewed as quirky but would still be of great interest as we found, today.
 
Did you ever see that film I think it was called the collector starring Timothy Spall. He collected and classified everything. We print the grand children's photos out, I did solid albums of my birth and adoptive families and they are great ice breakers and talking points and the bases for arguments. I have a friend an artist who compiles family trees and family life events and someone reproduces them in book form. In our family research everything is getting transposed to microflIm and on line, often incorrectly. Church registers and certificate copies are much more accurate. I never used the Ancestry type on line family tree, all my trees and there are many are on paper in pencil. I have some on screen back ups. Even if in the future paper trees should they survive, may be viewed as quirky but would still be of great interest as we found, today.
Wow Nico! I have not heard about Microfilm in over 30 plus years.......I used to live with it every day but now it seems like it’s gone!

Good luck with your history and family memories!
 
I started this thread almost a year ago and have enjoyed reading all the posts , all members with differing views.
So long as we record our memories and photos for our descendents that is all that matters, but me, I will still write
my diary every day and fill my suitcase with photos.lol.
My son sent my husband, on Whatsapp, a photo of Daisy in her uniform , first day at senior school but I shall print it off and frame it with the others, anyone coming into my house immediately realises I have grandchildren.

I have got my family tree on Ancestry for those not in my immediate family to view.
 
I HAD A LEAFLET COME THROUGH MY DOOR AND IT HAD SOME INTERESTING NEWS ON IT THAT I THOUGHT MEMBERS WOULD LIKE TO GO TO ITS AT ASTON HALL AND CHURCH .CONSERVATION AREA FREE HERITAGE OPEN DAY FROM 12 NOON TO 5PM ON SATURDAY 11 SEPTEMBER.( I did not know what section to put this in).
 
I don’t quite know how it happened – perhaps they found it or perhaps someone recommended it to them – but my Home Guard website is regularly archived by the British Library. (When I say “regularly“ I think they are a long way behind at the moment but they have assured me in the past that, eventually, it will be recorded in its final form). As a result of that it will, at least in theory, be available to future researchers in some sort of perpetuity.

This thought is a big consolation when I continue to spend on it many hours a week of whatever time remains to me!

Chris
I have read some of the guidance on archiving websites, a lot like other archiving guidance it's mainly about preservation. To use the library analogy again, its about wrapping the book up and putting it in a deep freeze so that in a hundred years time a specialist researcher will be able to access it.

While that is obviously 'a good thing' that book is no longer on the shelf, for practical purposes it ceases to exist. A library might want to remove books from circulation, it needs space for books that people want to read after all, but the same isn't true of the web. A new, bigger server comes online, first action copy over all the old stuff. Similarly with domain names, they just add more. So there is no real practical reason for deleting websites, there just needs to be some sort of funding model.

Using the library analogy again, neither the author or the publisher pay for their book to be preserved directly, that comes from public funds, i.e. taxation of the living.

On the subject of home photo collections I would worry about the stability of colour photographs. Old commercial prints certainly fade and I doubt if home printed ones will be any better. Just as important as keeping old photographs is recording details of the subject. I have experimented with making up documents containing images with text alongside. That means that I only need a reference number on the back of the photo and my document can list any original markings, explanations, comments and doubts. It saves having to turn over the original photo, makes it easier to spot repeated subjects and invites other relatives to add their own comments.
 
Having read the posts on this thread I started this afternoon to go through the old photographs I had inherited from my parents, grandparents and other family members and where possible write on the the back of them names, locations and dates where possible. I came across the following photo and had no idea of who it could be. Turning it over, on the reverse written in pencil and what could only be described as schoolchild handwriting was a name and address and dedication to my Mom, Edna.

P1010319 (2).JPG P1010322 (2).JPG P1010323 (2).JPG

Before she married my Mom lived at number 14, Oakhill Crescent and on the 1939 register she is described as a schoolgirl. I know she attended Severne Road school in Acocks Green and perhaps they were schoolmates.
I checked the register for number 1 (The address on the picture) and this was the entry

1 Oakhill Cres.jpg
I am assuming that one of the blacked out entries could be for a Winifred Sidney (Win on the back of the picture).
It would be wonderful if anyone recognises the girl in the photo and could confirm my assumptions.
 
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