Your precious family artifacts today just might unravel a descendant’s genealogical brick wall. Share what you’ve learned today from Kate and spread the word. Your generous ❤️s, restacks, and shares are a wonderful way to share this post with others and, in the process, thank Kathy and Kate.

Our special guest, Kate Jacus, is a staffer at the Documentary Heritage and Preservation Services for New York. This remarkable program makes the skills of a professional preservation specialist available to libraries, archives, and historical organizations across the state, helping them care for and make their collections accessible. Kate also runs The Photo Curator, a business focused on organizing and preserving personal and family photo archives.

Kate’s practical, real-world approach to caring for photographs, documents, and family “stuff” inspires us to curate our own collections. Kate was generous enough to share her slides for you to use as a reference while watching her presentation.

Kate Jacus Webinar For Projectkin

1.36MB ∙ PDF file

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Slides shared as a courtesy by Kate Jacus, The Photo Curator. All rights reserved.

Download

In her example, Kate references using a log, spreadsheet, or other database to track physical items. This is Lisa Stokes’ blog post Kate referenced, though she suggested adding physical condition.

Coming in May

Inspired by Annie Diehm’s Century Safe, is now building a time capsule of her own. What a perfect place to apply our newfound preservation skills. You may have heard about the “Bridge to 2076” in her talk for Projectkin in April:

In May, she’ll tailor the discussion for Kathy’s Corner to specifically discuss the challenges of curating objects for the time capsule. It’s the perfect follow-on to our conversation with about her Treasure Box and today’s program about preservation.

About Kathy

With her decades of experience as a professional photo organizer, Kathy always has another special insight to get us through it. Learn more about Kathy’s Coaching.

Kathy's Coaching

After years of helping people organize their photos, I now share tips and inspiration to help you tell your family's story — one photo, one keepsake, one memory at a time.

By Kathy Stone

As Projectkin, we’re here to help families tell their stories in any form. I feel strongly that our collections of photos and other artifacts are key to our memories and, in turn, our stories.

If you think this post might interest a friend or colleague, why not just pass it along?

These are public posts, and our events are free because sharing your stories is that important. Let’s get this started!

Share

Do you have a collected group of heirlooms passed down in your family? Share the details in the comments below. Your generous ❤️s, restacks, and shares are a wonderful way to share this post with others and, in the process, thank Kathy and Jane.

Today, we were treated to a presentation of the wonderful treasure box Jane Chapman has discussed in posts for her publication, . This was the first post in the series. We were captivated from the start.

BJNL's Genealogy

Our Treasure Box

When his mother died, my husband inherited a box of family treasures. At the moment it sits on our bookcase, its contents begging to be explored…

Read more

9 months ago · 25 likes · 24 comments · Jane Chapman

Since several of these references also pull in details about the family story, you may also be interested in following along from Jane’s WeAre Archive. Her full BJNL’s Genealogy site is here.

BJNL's Genealogy

This publication draws on my family history research to share narratives relating to people and events associated with either my, or my husband's, family history. It links to relevant information in my Family History Archives on the weare.xyz platform.

By Jane Chapman

Given the detail in her slides, Jane graciously shared them with us as a PDF.

Our Treasure Box — Jane Chapman's slides

25.8MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Other references

On the topic of family heirlooms, these are other related posts Kathy mentioned, first, from ’ WordPress site: Hidden Treasures Preserving the Stories Behind Family Heirlooms, and this related post on Substack.

In the context of curated heirlooms, we talked briefly about creating commemorative or time-constrained collections such as a Annie Deihm with the Century Safe captured in the fantastic five-part series of posts from .

The Lost & Found Story Box

Annie Deihm and the Century Safe: Part 1

| Part 1 of 5 | Next Chapter →…

Read more

3 months ago · 24 likes · 11 comments · Lori Olson White

Coming in April

Inspired by Annie Diehm’s Century Safe, Lori is now building a time capsule of her own. This collection will serve her family as a bridge to 2075, the 300th anniversary of our American Declaration of Independence. Join us on April 16 as she shares what she has in mind and how you can follow along to create your own time capsule:

Resources

In our conversation, Kathy mentioned several useful blog posts from her favorite supplier of preservation materials, Archival Methods. (These are not affiliate links; she’s a committed customer.):

• Basic Tips for Storing Family Heirlooms www.archivalmethods.com/blog/storing-family-heirlooms/

• Storing Small Objects

  www.archivalmethods.com/blog/storing-small-objects/

• Tips on Storing Quilts

  www.archivalmethods.com/blog/tips-on-storing-quilts/

• How to Store a Flag

  www.archivalmethods.com/blog/how-to-archivally-store-a-u-s-flag/

• Using Textile Storage Kits

  www.archivalmethods.com/blog/textile-storage-kits/

About Kathy

With her decades of experience as a professional photo organizer, Kathy always has another special insight to get us through it. Learn more about Kathy’s Coaching.

Kathy's Coaching

After years of helping people organize their photos, I now share tips and inspiration to help you tell your family's story — one photo, one keepsake, one memory at a time.

By Kathy Stone

As Projectkin, we’re here to help families tell their stories in any form. I feel strongly that our collections of photos and other artifacts are key to our memories and, in turn, our stories.

If you think this post might interest a friend or colleague, why not just pass it along?

These are public posts, and our events are free.

Share

Today’s episode focuses on a topic not yet covered in the RootsTech conference program, at the foundation of almost every family’s collection: the physical materials among the inherited stuff.

The topic came up in the context of her epic program in December when Projectkin members Jill Swenson, Linda Teather, Dr. Mary M. Marshall, Ellen Thompson-Jennings, Jayme Blenkarn, and Paula Collins stepped up to share postcards in their family collections. Looking at these incredible items and the memories they held reminded us of the importance of preserving them properly. Postcards slip into that sometimes uncomfortable space between museum-quality artifact and cheap souvenir. As we quickly learned, one can damage the other.

At the conclusion of her talk, there was an offline discussion of programming at RootsTech as it related to archiving. There are few sessions tailored to this, just one class surfaced:

• An Archivist’s Guide to Preserving and Managing Your Family Treasures

  with Katharine Korte Andrew (includes a syllabus for the talk).

Kathy additionally recommended a vendor talk from

• How to Save and Share Your Genealogy Research and Memories for Generations with Glen Meakem of Forever.com. No syllabus was provided.

---

The following are resources and references Kathy mentioned in her talk. Though many of the listed blogs and videos can be provided by vendors, they’re offered without affiliate or sponsored links.

Archival Resources & References

Archival Methods

• ArchivalMethods.com

• ArchivalMethods.com/blog/how-to-begin-to-preserve-your-family-archive

• ArchivalMethods.com/blog/agents-of-deterioration

• ArchivalMethods.com/blog/preventing-light-damage

• ArchivalMethods.com/blog/postcards-archival-care-for-preservation

• ArchivalMethods.com/blog/how-to-store-old-letters-and-documents

• ArchivalMethods.com/blog/archival-definitions-acid-free-buffered-unbuffered

• ArchivalMethods.com/blog/beyond-photo-safe-mean

• ArchivalMethods.com/product/textile-storage-kit

• From Archival Methods’ YouTube channel @ArchivalMethods:

Gaylord

• Gaylord.com

• info.Gaylord.com/resources/what-does-that-mean-acid-lignin-free

• info.Gaylord.com/resources/acid-free-vs-archival

Certifications for Permanence

(“Acid-free”, lignin-free, etc.)

• Image Permanence Institute rit.edu/ipi

• Photographic Activity Test rit.edu/ipi/photographic-activity-test

• ISO 18916 iso.org/standard/84731.html

• Photographic Activity Tests of Various Adhesives

  resources.culturalheritage.org/pmgtopics/2013-volume-fifteen/61-T15_Down_et_al.pdf

Photographic Activity Tests of Various Adhesives Suggested for Use on Water- Sensitive Photographs

502KB ∙ PDF file

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Author(s): Jane Down, Joe Iraci, and Greg Hill Topics in Photographic Preservation, Volume 15. Pages: 475-483 Compiler: Jessica Keister © 2013, The American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works.

Download

Canadian Sources

• carrmclean.ca/archival-supplies.html

• provincialarchives.alberta.ca/shop

• canada.ca/en/conservation-institute.html

Resources for Postcards

• worldpostcardday.com/history

• phototree.com/book_photo_postcard.htm

• playle.com/realphoto

• siarchives.si.edu/history/featured-topics/postcard/postcard-history

• library.ualberta.ca/peel/postcards/the-postcard-a-brief-history

• postalmuseum.org/collections/highlights/postcards

• southpeacearchives.org/blog/the-art-of-postcards-history-in-the-mail

• vintagepostcards.ca/Postcard_Eras.html

• lib.umd.edu/institute-american-deltiology

• joycetice.com/johnson/catalog/rppc.html (Exaggerated Postcards)

• britannicauctions.com/blog/rppc-postcards

• postcardhistory.net/2020/08/a-look-at-leather-postcards

About Kathy

With her decades of experience as a professional photo organizer, Kathy always has another special insight to get us through it. Learn more about Kathy’s Coaching.

Kathy's Coaching

After years of helping people organize their photos, I now share tips and inspiration to help you tell your family's story — one photo, one keepsake, one memory at a time.

By Kathy Stone

As Projectkin, we’re here to help families tell their stories in any form. I feel strongly that our collections of photos and other artifacts are key to our memories and, in turn, our stories.

If you think this post might interest a friend or colleague, why not just pass it along? These are public posts, and our events are free.

Share

You can also bring your friend along to join us at our next Kathy’s Corner event. See our calendar for upcoming events. We’ve partnered with Geneabloggers in the RootsTech Ride Along this year. Please visit our joint site at RideAlongPartners.org to learn more.

As Projectkin, we’re hooked on family history stories. So often, these stories start with the stuff left for us by our ancestors. Deciding what to do with them is often a fast path to a Gulf of Overwhelm. In Kathy’s Corner, we’re here to get through it together.

Today’s episode, takes us by the hand to talk seriously about setting goals, or just taking a fresh look at goal setting. Below are a few useful resources mentioned during our conversation:

Resources

We’ll start with Kathy’s own post that started this conversation:

Kathy's Coaching

Goals, Quests and Getting Stuff Done

Here we are in January and with so many world events swirling around, it has been hard to think about resolutions or set goals or pick a word for the year. It is almost the third week of January, and my page is still blank…

Read more

4 months ago · 18 likes · 9 comments · Kathy Stone

As background, Kathy shared the post that inspired her to look at what she was trying to accomplish as a quest. This post from Ashley Janssen, “Why Traditional Goal Setting Doesn’t Always Work and What To Do Instead,” had her thinking about “growth loops.”

That set us off on a discussion of goals in the context of a journey, a quest. As we went around the Zoom, Jennifer Jones added insight, reflecting on a new year post she’d released for her alternative publication, The Retirement Phase:

The Retirement Phase

Find Your Fresh Start in 2026

One of the best things about rolling over into a new year is that there is always the opportunity for a fresh start. Maybe you set goals or had intentions last year that you didn’t reach. Don’t waste time beating yourself up about that. It really doesn’t matter. My advice would be to park it, and move on. It’s a new year, and that means time for a fresh…

Read more

4 months ago · 11 likes · 13 comments · Jennifer Jones

We also discussed strategies for managing the overwhelm in terms of your genealogical research. One approach mentioned combines her research on three substacks (BJNL’s Genealogy and Kyeburn Diggings One-Place Study) with a repository using the WeAre.xyz platform.

About Kathy

With her decades of experience as a professional photo organizer, Kathy always has another special insight to get us through it. Learn more about Kathy’s Coaching.

Kathy's Coaching

After years of helping people organize their photos, I now share tips and inspiration to help you tell your family's story — one photo, one keepsake, one memory at a time.

By Kathy Stone

As Projectkin, we’re here to help families tell their stories in any form. I feel strongly that our collections of photos and other artifacts are key to our memories and, in turn, our stories.

You can also bring your friend along to join us at our next Kathy’s Corner event. See our upcoming events here

.

We also wanted to extend a hearty thank you to our amazing speakers today, , , , Ellen Thompson-Jennings, Jayme Blenkarn, and Paula Collins It was a wonderful session with so many stories shared by our panel of speakers. Your support, encouragement, and feedback keep us going. Drop a ❤️ below to help these programs reach a larger audience.

As Projectkin, we’re hooked on family history stories. So often, these stories start with the stuff left for us by our ancestors. In Kathy’s Corner, it helps us sort through and make sense of our collections of photographs, documents, and other artifacts. Her decades of experience as a professional photo organizer give her special insight into the field. See upcoming events here.

Postcards and their stories has been in the background of many of our programs here at Kathy’s Corner. For this final episode for 2025, we invited a half-dozen friends, members, and a cousin to join us to share their stories. This resulted in a joyful celebration of the visual stories we discover these precious artifacts.

The discussion was so compelling you can expect more programs to touch on related topics in the weeks and months to come. Have an idea for a future episode? Drop Kathy a note:

Message Kathy Stone Directly

Our Speakers & Their Postcards

Jill Swenson

Jill has written a book that is coming out next June about the place where her Swedish immigrant great-grandparents homesteaded on ceded Red Lake Reservation land in northern Minnesota in 1903. Since 1968 when Jill purchased a picture postcard of Kakaygeesick, the Ojibway spiritual leader she met as a 10-year-old visiting relatives there, Jill has collected postcards and she is here to talk about her newest acquisition: an image of her great-grandmother’s sister at her spinning wheel from 1913

Contact Details

• on Substack

Linda Teather

Linda is a long time supporter of Projectkin and Kathy’s Corner, from Calgary, Alberta. She has done photo projects with her family archives. Her Postcards were found by Barbara’s niece, in a Thrift Shop in Portland Oregon, and we shared them on a Kathy’s Corner. Linda jumped in and did some research on the postcards

Contact Details

• on Substack

Mary Marshall

Dr. Mary M. Marshall, a retired educator, is the founder/curator of “Dr. Mary Marshall’s Collection.” Her interest in postcards began when she found a collection of postcards and letters in her ancestral home, and from having a sizable number of postcards returned to her after they were found in an antique store.

In addition to the slide of her postcards, Mary also wanted to share this video she recorded to express her gratitude to the person who returned her postcards:

Contact Details

• on Substack

Ellen Thompson

Ellen has been doing genealogy since she was a teen when she interviewed her great grandmother. One of the postcards that she is sharing today is one that belonged to that great grandmother

Contact Details

• on Substack on the web or on YouTube

Jayme Blenkarn

Jayme is Edmonton, Alberta. Her interest in Postcards came via her unintentionally ending up with possession of many family albums.... from multiple families....100+ years of history from her complicated but amazing family tree. Paired with her interest in Genealogy, These Postcards help connect her to her roots but also help her tie together the details of her own life journal. The stories written between the lines on the backs of these cards tell here more about the people she lost than she expected. They help put a few more puzzle pieces together.

Contact Details

• on Substack

Paula Collins

Paula is from NE Florida. Genealogy is one of her hobbies. Her postcards bring back memories of the family trips she had over her time growing up, and items that she had seen or known about through her father. The times of going to flea markets and antique shows of him looking through postcard boxes and shadow boxes for items he collected, including Depression Glass, Campbell Soup Ornaments and Royal Dolton.

Contact Details

• on Substack

History & Other Resources

From Mary Marshall

• The Dr. Mary Marshall Collection is accessible at Emory University: archives.libraries.emory.edu/repositories/7/resources/3057

When you go to this link or put Mary Marshall +Emory University in search bar, and you’ll see other links that show some specific photos from the collection.

From Jayme Blenkarn

• A deltiologist is a person who collects and studies picture postcards. The hobby is called deltiology, and it is one of the world’s largest collecting hobbies. Collectors are drawn to postcards for various reasons, such as interest in history, art, or specific subjects like a particular city, building, or even historical events. www.joycetice.com/johnson/catalog/rppc.html

  • Stanley Johnson Exaggerated Postcards

• postcardhistory.net/2020/08/a-look-at-leather-postcards/

• glamourforgrandmothers.com/a-leather-postcard-romance/

From Paula Collins:

A person with many hobbies can be called a Multipotentialite, a term for someone with diverse interests, or a Polymath, someone skilled in many fields

• University of Maryland Libraries www.lib.umd.edu/institute-american-deltiology The Institute was established to act as library, gallery and research center for the study of postcards and North American history and culture.

From Jennifer Jones:

• Postcards remind me of how wonderful it would be to see business cards through the years. We had many different ones and in the 80s they were postcard size. I’d love to still have them.

Other Referenced Posts

Joining us in the audience today was Jane Chapman, whom many of you will know for her Substack, BJNL’s Genealogy. Her ongoing series of posts “From the Treasure Box” detailing the contents of an old suitcase her husband inherited filled with photos, postcards and other family-related items. Explore the series of posts here.

To learn more about the history of postcards and other resources, please see our Live program earlier this week:

About Kathy Stone and Kathy’s Coaching

Kathy's Coaching

After years of helping people organize their photos, I now share tips and inspiration to help you tell your family's story — one photo, one keepsake, one memory at a time.

By Kathy Stone

As Projectkin, we’re here to help families tell their stories in any form. I feel strongly that our collections of photos and other artifacts are key to our memories and, in turn, our stories.

As Projectkin, we’re hooked on family history stories. So often, these stories start with the stuff left for us by our ancestors. In Kathy’s Corner, it helps us sort through and make sense of our collections of photographs, documents, and other artifacts. Her decades of experience as a professional photo organizer give her special insight into the field. See upcoming events here.

We were delighted to welcome as our special guest. As a former curator at a historical society, Maureen knows how to make sense of photographs and family history. As she puts it, her skills are at the junction of history, genealogy, and photography. You can follow Maureen on her YouTube channel here. Kathy referenced just two of her many well-known books; you’ll find more books, courses, and tools on her website.

• Preserving Your Family Photographs

• Family Photo Detective 2023

Maureen’s talents make her the perfect person to discuss metadata, a long-time challenge for genealogists and photo organizers.

Today’s discussions covered a range of topics from

• A basic introduction to the term and its history in photography.

• The conflict between the metadata use case for genealogists and the privacy exposure it creates for use in social media.

Resources Mentioned

Maureen’s posts & publications

• Metadata playlist on YouTube

  The Photo Detective News

  What is Metadata?

  Metadata is all the information you want to preserve about an image. Anything that’s an image—scans of documents, downloaded documents, photos, prints, photos of artifacts. It doesn’t matter what it is, as long as it’s an image file…

  Read more

  7 months ago · 8 likes · 3 comments · Maureen Taylor

Organizations & specifications

• The International Press Telecommunications Council — IPTC.org

  • Photo Metadata IPTC Standard

• Exchangeable Image File Format (EXIF) Family summary from the US Library of Congress

Tools and platforms that leverage image metadata for genealogists

• Vivid-Pix

• Adobe Bridge

• Mylio

• Forever

Platforms for comparing images without the use of metadata

• From Google

  • Images.Google.com (drag-and-drop image file to search)

  • Google Lens (works in Chrome and Google Photos mobile app)

• Tineye.com

Privacy Issue in Image Metadata

A summary of privacy concerns when data is included with images shared on social media has spawned a series of platforms to strip metadata from images. There are a variety of these tools online, including Metadata2go, and PrivacyStrip, to name just two.

Learn more about Kathy’s Coaching.

Kathy's Coaching

After years of helping people organize their photos, I now share tips and inspiration to help you tell your family's story — one photo, one keepsake, one memory at a time.

By Kathy Stone

As Projectkin, we’re here to help families tell their stories in any form. I feel strongly that our collections of photos and other artifacts are key to our memories and, in turn, our stories.

Date change: Our usual date for Kathy’s Corner in November coincides with American Thanksgiving. A month later, it lands on Christmas Day. To work around that, we’ll combine our November and December programs into a special Kathy’s Corner event on December 5.1

Our program on December 4th will be a special interactive program titled “Postcards: Pictures, Stories, Art, and History.” Bring your postcard and story, and tell us about it!

If you can bring a postcard, please let Kathy know so she can adjust our timing so everyone can participate.

Message Kathy Stone

As Projectkin, we’re hooked on family history stories. So often, these stories start with the stuff left for us by our ancestors. In Kathy’s Corner, Projectkin contributor , helps us sort through and make sense of these materials with insights from her decades of professional photo organizer experience. Explore our calendar for upcoming events here.

Notes

Disaster does strike; we know it will; we just don’t know when and where. In today’s tactical episode, Kathy takes us through the gritty work of handling those damaged photos and artifacts.

Safety First!

Kathy mixes her guidance on handling the photos with tips on personal hazards like

• Mold (or Mould)

• Unknown chemicals

• Fire residue

You may not know what to expect, but you can be prepared. Kathy’s offered suggestions for the kinds of things your might want to set aside in a Recovery Kit:

• Freezer Bags for wet, but clean photos you can’t handle yet.

• Wax or parchment paper to place objects to dry without risk of sticking.

• Marker and paper for notes, such as to associate photos with envelopes.

• A knife or boxcutter to disassemble an album.

• Gloves to protect yourself from mold or unknown chemicals.

• Breathing mask (N95 or respirator) to protect yourself from mold and fetid material from floods or other disasters.

A special guest of Kathy’s, Anne Matuszak shared two interesting photos during the session that helped illustrate both the damage that can occur:

To illustrate a drying technique using an ad hoc clothes line method built from ladders, Anne shared this example:

Resources

• What to Do When Disaster Strikes Your Photos by Kathy Stone

  Kathy's Coaching

  What to Do When Disaster Strikes Your Photos

  This post first appeared on my website in 2015. I updated it in 2024 to add a section on smoke damage…

  Read more

  a year ago · 8 likes · Kathy Stone

• How to Remove Your Pictures from Magnetic Photo Albums by Good Life Photo Solutions • goodlifephotosolutions.com/magnetic-photo-albums

• Multi-Purpose Tool for handling photos creativememories.ca/multi-purpose-tool.html

• Flattening Curled Photos by Chaos to Memories

• Photo Tutorial: How to Relax and Rehumidify Old Rolled Photographs and Documents by the Family Curator • thefamilycurator.com/photo-tutorial-how-to-relax-and-rehumidify-old-rolled-photog

• I Have Smelly Family Photos. Now What? By Familytree Magazine familytreemagazine.com/preservation/photos-preservation/smelly-family-photos

As Projectkin, we’re here to help families tell their stories, in any form. I feel strongly that our collections of photos and other artifacts are key to our memories and, in turn, our stories.

As you explore this episode, you may also want to explore the many posts on Kathy’s own publication, .

Kathy's Coaching

After years of helping people organize their photos, I now share tips and inspiration to help you tell your family's story — one photo, one keepsake, one memory at a time.

By Kathy Stone

As Projectkin, we’re hooked on family history stories. So often, these stories start with the stuff left for us by our ancestors. In Kathy’s Corner, Projectkin contributor , helps us sort through and make sense of these materials with insights learned in her decades of experience as a professional photo organizer. Explore our calendar for coming events here.

For many of us, handling personal archives is tricky. Not only do we have to keep track of those endless utilitarian photos, we’re also master archivists for our extended family. To sort through all of that, you now have the company of friends (Projectkin) and the expertise of a pro, .

Today, Kathy walked us through the simple terms you’ll often hear tossed around with an assumption that we all know what we’re talking about. Well… that’s not always true — and we often have slightly different meanings for the terms we use.

The goal here isn’t to agree on the terms, necessarily. Instead, we want to help you understand how the terms are used to ensure that you can plan a workflow for your own materials. At the end of the day, the most important thing is that you never lose these precious archives. It’s also pretty nice when you can find exactly what you’re looking for when you need it.

In this recording, Kathy’s asked questions like:

• Should you Sync a Legacy collection?

• How much should be in a Legacy Collection?

You’ll see that the answers to these questions are not always as straightforward as you might think.

In the recording, Kathy mentioned an example of a Legacy Collection - this one is public:

• forever.com/app/users/john-a-jack-snyder

Legacy and archive may have subtle differences that matter in how they’re used by backup and sync are by no means the same. Kathy’s recommended this article as background:

• proton.me/blog/backup-vs-sync

She also talked about the classic mnemonic: The ABC's of Photo Organizing: A—Album, B—Box, C—Can (trash), and S—Stories. Here’s The Photo Managers articulation of the strategy:

• thephotomanagers.com/the-abcs-of-photo-organizing

Finally, Kathy referenced of Photogenealogy and the approach she’s used for these terms. Here’s a summary she shared as a pdf:

• Ann Larkham’s Photogenealogy Terminology

As a tip to next month’s focus Kathy is actively participating in The Photo Managers annual Save Your Photos Month. As part of that program, Kathy has shared her affiliate link to their programming, most of which is entirely free during the month of September.

• thephotomanagers.ontralink.com/t?orid=557&opid=43

Do you have questions for Kathy or other members of the community, drop them in the chat below and let’s keep this conversation going. I know I have a good idea for an archiving project I should have done a while ago. 🤭 No time like the present!

As Projectkin, we’re hooked on family history stories. So often, these stories start with the stuff left for us by our ancestors. In Kathy’s Corner, Projectkin contributor Kathy Stone, helps us sort through and make sense of these materials with insights learned in her decades of experience as a professional photo organizer. Explore our calendar for coming events here.

Managing expectations can be the key to sticking with your goals of organizing and maintaining your family photo collection. Today’s lively and wide-ranging conversation included:

• Projects vs. Operational Discipline (perhaps a program or process).

• How to manage projects delivered in digital form.

• How a digital archive such as WeAre.xyz might differ from a photo archive.

• How terms can vary and why you want to be very clear about how you’re handling:

  • Your personal photo backups (such as from your mobile devices)

  • Your scanned photo collection and how they are backed up, archived, and flow through notations for correcting dates, edits, or metadata

  • A hub of your photos and how that’s backed up and archived

  • Completed projects are archived

  • How a family legacy collection might differ from your photo collection.

Kathy also shared a few tools she’s been using in a section we called “Kathy’s Confessions” 😉

• The “where you are on your projects” survey that Kathy mentioned from her publication:

  Kathy's Coaching

  After years of helping people organize their photos, I now share tips and inspiration to help you tell your family's story — one photo, one keepsake, one memory at a time.

  By Kathy Stone

• Kathy’s Google Sheet with tabs to help manage the stages of a scanning project. (That’s free for you to use.)

  

As you explore this episode, you may also find Kathy’s notable post

Many thanks to our active participants today, including , , , and among others. Your contributions added to the richness of today’s conversation, thank you.

As Projectkin, we’re hooked on family history stories. So often, these stories start with the artifacts, documents, and photographs left for us by our ancestors. In Kathy’s Corner, Projectkin contributor Kathy Stone, helps us sort through and make sense of these materials with insights learned in her decades of experience as a professional photo organizer. Explore our calendar for coming events here.

Today, Kathy dove into some of the most basic challenges of our artifact collections: acquiring the photos and using the ones in our possession. We may own the physical prints or digital files, but do we have the copyright? If we don’t know who does, how do we get permission?

Today’s episode builds on a tip for , by “Copyright and Images.” (You’ll find a long list of resources in that post and more tips in this series at MissionGenealogy.org/tips).

Mission: Genealogy

Copyright and Images

I’ll start with the caveat that I’m not a lawyer, and the Communications Law class I took forty years ago is a dim memory, but issues of plagiarism and copyright often crop up in my life…

Read more

a year ago · 20 likes · 17 comments · Deborah Carl

During her talk, Kathy Stone referenced numerous external articles and legal summaries, including:

Copyright Laws by Country

• United Kingdom — legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/contents

• Canada — laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-42/Index.html

• United States — copyright.gov/title17

• New Zealand — legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1994/0143/latest/DLM345634.html

• Australia — legislation.gov.au/C1968A00063/2019-01-01/text

Electronic Frontier Foundation: Advocacy

• Fair Use Topics — eff.org/issues/intellectual-property

• “The Public Domain Is the Rule, Copyright Is the Exception” — eff.org/deeplinks/2020/01/public-domain-rule-copyright-exception

OrganizingPhotos.Net

• “Can I Scan that Photo – Legally? Understanding Copyright and Fair Use” by Jackie Jade — Organizingphotos.net/scan-photo-legally-copyright-fair-use

The Legal Genealogist on Copyright

• LegalGenealogist.com/category/copyright

  • “Copyright and the old family photo” — LegalGenealogist.com/2012/03/06/copyright-and-the-old-family-photo

  • “Copyright and the genealogy lecture” — bit.ly/4loa578

Open Media

• “The Shrӧdigner’s cat of copyright: What is an ‘orphan work’”— bit.ly/4kWQr2b

Wilders & Co, Content Management Systems

• “Who Cares About Copyright Infringement Laws” by Regan Wilders — linkedin.com/pulse/who-cares-copyright-infringement-laws-regan-wilders

Langara College Library

• “Copyright for Photography” — langara.libguides.com/copyright-for-photography/canada

As Projectkin, we’re hooked on family history stories. So often, these stories start with the artifacts, documents, and photographs left for us by our ancestors. In Kathy’s Corner, Projectkin contributor , helps us sort through and make sense of these materials with insights learned in her decades of experience as a professional photo organizer. Explore our calendar for coming events here.

We were thrilled by another richly informative hour with Kathy. Today’s focus was on the artifacts and mementos we inherit in our family collections that relate to experiences during periods of war. Kathy shared several examples from her own collection.

Stay tuned for a very special program coming up in the first week of June that drills into this topic, featuring of , “War Stories & Healing Paths,” on Thursday, June 5th.

Resources

Identifying military artifacts and their history tends to be regional or specific to service branches. To help you research the history behind artifacts in your family collection, Kathy shared a number of resources she’s aware of.

If you have others, please drop them in the comments to share with others in our community.

National Archives UK

UK National Archives » Research Guides

• British Army Soldiers in service after 1918

  www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/british-army-soldiers-in-service-after-1918

Library and Archives of Canada

• Military Pages at the Library and Archives of Canada

  library-archives.canada.ca/eng/collection/research-help/military-heritage/Pages/military-heritage.aspx

US National Archives

• US National Archives

  www.archives.gov/research/military

The Internet Archive

• Search for “Military” or drill down further

  archive.org/search?query=Military

Other References

Kathy’s Ship-in-a-Bottle story

• As shared in ’s Show & Tale series.

Military History Substacks

These are just a few examples.1

• From whose popular blog at ChiddicksFamilyTree.com is blended with his active Substack at ChiddicksFamilyTree.

  • My Favorite Find: A Hero’s Medals Saved by Chance

• In his post, Hidden Treasures: Preserving the stories behind family heirlooms, Paul referenced the pin cushion and mystery photo belonging to Projectkin member we talked about in today’s program.

  chiddicksfamilytree.com/2024/12/19/hidden-treasures-preserving-the-stories-behind-family-heirlooms. As Paul shares in the post, these are:

  • A pin cushion with the insignia of The Royal Fusiliers.

  • The photograph of a serving soldier of the Royal Fusiliers—a man who likely crafted the cushion with his own hands

    

Image Evaluation Tools

We’ve talked about many of these in different events, but Kathy’s reference to her Ship-in-a-Bottle story and the nearby Prisoner of War camp in western Canada sent me to dig up:

• Picarta.ai: A nifty tool with a 3-per-day free plan that gives you the GPS coordinates with a degree of confidence for any photograph that includes known landmarks.

• Related Faces: A software platform that gives you a new way to identify unknown family members in your photos. Our software isolates and maps faces and then compares them to reveal previously unknown connections.

• WWII Prisoner of War Camps: Since this was new to me, I thought you might find it interesting as well. Wikipedia includes a remarkable listing of prisoner-of-war camps worldwide.

Finally, as Kathy hinted at the conclusion of today’s program, she’ll be joining me again on Sunday at 2/5 PM PT/ET, 10 PM BST for my weekly Substack Live program to tip her hand to a special announcement. Join us!

As Projectkin, we’re hooked on family history stories. So often, these stories start with the artifacts, documents, and photographs left for us by our ancestors. In Kathy’s Corner, , Projectkin member and long-time contributor, helps us sort through and make sense of these materials with insights learned in decades of experience as a professional photo organizer. Explore recordings of past episodes here, and our calendar for coming events here.

Our discussion today built on a challenge Kathy introduced in January 2025 related to the mystery photos in everyone’s collections. In parts 1-3, Kathy stepped through different ways to explore our photos using:

1. Knowledge about photography technologies, and photographers (part 1);

2. Information about physical elements of photos (part 2); and

3. Elements captured in the photograph (part 3).

⮕ Here are links to those first three parts:

Today, we turned to timelines as an external tool to use to explore our photo collection. As you’ll see in the discussion and resources below, this led to an inspiring conversation about new ways to tell stories.

Resources for Timelines in Family Photo Organizing

Templates & Tools

Cyndi’s List

• www.cyndislist.com/timelines

• www.cyndislist.com/timelines/templates

Family Tree Magazine

• familytreemagazine.com/research/genealogy-timeline

Ancestories: Stories of My Ancestors Miriam Robbins

• ancestories1.blogspot.com/2014/02/tuesdays-tip-timelines.html

How to Create a Timeline in Excel by John Wittwer

• www.vertex42.com/ExcelArticles/create-a-timeline.html

Grid Timeline or Research Logs

Goldenrod Genealogy

• goldenrodgenealogy.com/timeline_grid.htm

Interactive Timeline

Northwestern University Knight Lab

• From the Knight Lab program for journalists at Northwestern: Knightlab.northwestern.edu, specifically the TimelineJS tool, timeline.knightlab.com

  This TimelineJS tool was the basis for the Lafayette Timeline Project Recipe from April 2025 and includes templates for using TimelineJS.

Projectkin is all about our members, family historians hooked on stories. We’re on a mission to help families tell their stories in any way that works for them. Preserve your family archive and share the stories that make it so important. Tap below to join us for our May program at Kathy’s Corner.

With the focus of a campaign director, she and her client taped the room with paper organized into a family tree and a collective timeline. The idea was to capture all information they could find to be readily accessible as questions came up in examining, identifying, and curating photos. Examples she gave included:

• How family members were related and when they were born.

• Notable dates in the family, such as holidays celebrated, anniversaries, etc.

• Where the family lived and when (if they moved, all of which also implies seasonal clothing differences).

• Where they vacationed (such as a summer home).

• Sports favored and played or practiced.

• Subtle details like when/if kids wore braces can be helpful in identifying photos.

Structured plainly on a timeline, this detail can unlock puzzles and connect storylines.

Resources

About Photo Technologies

• About Lantern Slides: The US National Parks Service www.nps.gov/yose/blogs/curious-matters-the-hocus-pocus-history-of-glass-lantern-photography.htm

Dating Photos by Content

• Dating vintage photos by clothing & hairstyles: links to online resource by date

  • www.sheknows.com/living/articles/814584/genealogy-research-datingvintage-photographs-by-clothing-and-hairstyles-1

  • www.legacytree.com/blog/womens-fashion-date-old-photos

  • blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/how-to-date-family-photographs

• How to Identify Old Cars in Photographs

  • lisalouisecooke.com/2017/12/27/how-to-identify-old-cars-in-photographs

• Canadian Military Uniforms

  • www.canadiansoldiers.com/index.htm

• US Military Uniforms

  • www.defense.gov/Multimedia/Experience/Common-Threads/Common-Threads-Army

Useful Reference Books

• Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective

  • MaureenTaylor.com

• Maureen Taylor’s book collection:

  • MaureenTaylor.com/product-category/books

• Kathy’s favorites among Maureen’s books

  • Family Photo Detective: Learn to Find Genealogy Clues in Old Photos and Solve Family Photo Mysteries (also available as an ebook)

  • Hairstyles 1840-1900

  • Fashionable Folks: Bonnets and Hats, 1840-1900

• Adam Pratt’s book

  • Memories: A Visual Guide to Your Photos and Videos by Adam Pratt

Projectkin is about our members, a community of family historians hooked on stories. We’re on a mission to help families tell their stories in any way that works for them. Preserve your family archive and share the stories that make it so important. Tap below to join us for our April program at Kathy’s Corner.

After Kathy’s core presentation, she opened up the discussion. stepped up to share a delightful example of a family mystery photo and was gracious enough to allow us to share it here.

Have a suggestion? Leave a comment

Since we were having such a good time exploring old photos with our new skills, Emily followed up with another example of a family photo including a border. What does this border tell us about the probable date for the image? And the dog, what breed?

Resources

The Village at Blackcreek: Good Overview of History of Photography

• blackcreek.ca/photography-history/

Fort Lewis College: Information for determining Dates of US Postcards

• fortlewis.edu/finding_aids/images/M194/PostcardDating.htm#Box

Cindi’s List: a list of helpful websites for dating photos

• cyndislist.com/photos/dating

Stamp Community: Photographs and Revenue Stamps

• stampcommunity.org/topic.asp?topic_id=78839&whichpage=1

Lisa Lisson (Are You My Cousin?) on Tax Stamps

• lisalisson.com/how-to-date-photographs-using-tax-stamps/

Film Format and Sizes

• photomemorabilia.co.uk/Colour_Darkroom/Early_Kodak_CameraFilm.html

Old Negative Film & Camera Formats

• nostalgicmedia.com/blogs/media-conversion/guide-to-negative-film-camera-formats

Deckle Edge

• rshare.library.torontomu.ca/articles/thesis/Snapshots_with_an_edge_a_study_of_the_deckle_edge_in_the_North_American_snapshot/14647395?file=28127568

Photo Borders

• flickr.com/groups/elko_borders_on_bw_photos/pool/

Eastman Museum Collections Online (advance search)

• eastman.org/collections-online

Evolution of the Kodak Logo

• designhill.com/design-blog/history-of-evolution-of-the-kodak-logo/

My Heritage PhotoDater

• myheritage.com/help-center?a=What-is-PhotoDatertm-and-how-does-it-work---id--kRRrmbewQUyybCKZB-SYHw

You are always welcome to share these recordings and detailed notes. If you enjoy them, we hope you will return to join the community and learn more.

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In earlier episodes, Kathy took a methodical approach through each of the eight steps in her process featured in this post from late 2023:

She’s starting 2025 with practical applications of carefully sorted, scanned, and archived photos to explore the stories they have to tell. To get to the creamy tale in the middle, sometimes it’s helpful to start from what you can deduce.

Here are some of Kathy’s tricks:

Estimate the Date by Identifying the Type

“Good enough” estimates of dates can go a long way to getting you started. Identifying your family photographs starts with identifying what type they are. Types are generally defined by the technologies available when the photo was taken, so it can reveal the era in which it was taken. Once you know the era, it can be easier to identify the people, place, or occasion in a photo.

To help with that, Kathy included several useful tools:

• PhotoTree.com

  • Identifying and Dating 19th-Century Photographs (PhotoTree)

    

• Science and Media Museum, “How to Spot a Cabinet Card”

• Ancestral Findings: Identifying the Era of a Photo By its Type

Ask the Photographer

In markings on or around a print, you’ll often also find indications of the photographer's name, address, or location. The venerable Cindi’s List site includes an extensive list of photographer identification sites:

• Cindi’s List: Identifying Photographers

One expert in dating and estimating photos is Maureen Taylor, who draws on resources from fashion and technology.

• Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective. She has a popular podcast and blog and is the author of “Identifying Family Photographs” available at her site with consultations and other books.

Special Cases for Postcards

If “real photo” postcards are in your collection, you might appreciate the detail at Playle with guidance on

• How to Identify and Date Real Photo Vintage Postcards - paper name,
  production dates and stamps.

  • Don’t miss the “Quick Reference Real Photo Old Postcard Dating Guide”

Special Guest: Hazel Thornton

With that as background, Kathy introduced us to the author, photo organizer, and family historian Hazel Thornton. Hazel is the author of “What’s a Photo Without the Story: How to Create Your Family Legacy?”

Hazel shared her journey, which began with an intriguing photo in her collection. With a little detective work, she identified the subject and location. In her book, she takes you through the story.

• You can reach Hazel directly via email here, or at her website, org4life.com, where you’ll also find her other published works, including:

  • Hung Jury: The Diary of a Menendez Juror

  • Go With the Flow! The Clutter Flow Chart Workbook

We hope you enjoyed today’s program as much as we did in today’s “live studio audience.” To learn more about the programs each month, please visit our event calendar at

Projectkin.org/events

As you can see in the transcript, we started by discussing the photo as an artifact in its many potential formats, from celluloid negative or slide to print on paper, glass, or metal. When making digital copies, you respect the original artifacts while creating new forms that might capture stories or provide context to others' stories.

During the conversation, Kathy listed several past posts, including:

⮕ In this key post, Kathy included a templated Google Sheet she uses to plan and track her digitization efforts. She recently updated the sheet1 now shared in that article and here for your convenience:

Kathy's Corner Workflow Checklist

You can explore the full list of past Kathy’s Corner episodes at Projectkin.org/kathys-corner. You can also reach out to directly here on Substack at:

Send Kathy a DM

In the discussion of projects, Kathy referenced the example of sharing family stories in the context of a printed cookbook following the model described by in her wonderful post:

The program concludes with several useful tools and tips swapped including:

• The history of Projectkin and how it got its name.

• Useful resources, including a nifty tool for digitizing video yourself using the Elgato Video Capture (a hat-tip to for that.)

• And finally, ideas for projects (but you’ll have to watch the video for these.)

We hope you enjoyed today’s program as much as we did in today’s “live studio audience.” To learn more about the four to eight programs each month, please visit our event calendar at

Projectkin.org/events

You’re always welcome to join us for our programs. They’re free and scheduled as virtual programs for the convenience of our English-speaking members in the Atlantic and Pacific regions. Join us, won’t you?

Along the way, we compared notes on the historical roots of the holiday and traditions:

• So-called Pendle Witches and the 1612 witch trials the area surrounding Pendle Hill in Lancashire, England

• Witches in both Connecticut and Salem in the United States, and the current effort to gain exoneration for the victims in Connecticut

• Origins for Jack-o-lanterns in Ireland

• About Washington Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow and the story of Ichabod Crain, full text from Project Gutenberg

Additions from about Halloween in Canada:

• About Halloween in the Canadian Encyclopedia

• From Oxford County Archives, the History of Halloween in Canada

• From the City of Edmonton

  • Halloween in Edmonton

  • Trick or Treating as it Evolved

• And… from the Wisconsin State Farmer: Outhouse tipping was a Thing!

We had such a good time that it’s clear we’ll be doing this again. Bring a costume… just play with Zoom’s virtual costumes. 🎃 Who knew how much cross-cultural knowledge would be shared across our Anglophone world.

Stories lie hidden in these photos.

This month, shared how to recognize clues and use them to weave stories with the other genealogical facts we’ve collected. As we learned today, beware of rabbits bearing pocket watches. 😉 This kind of work can easily lead to distractions down “rabbit holes” of research.

Some topics we discussed:

• How to use Google’s “Lens” reverse image search in a browser or in Google’s mobile Photo app on Android or iPhone.

• How do you draw on what you know to learn more? For example, if your photo shows construction on an important landmark, public documentation or news reports can help you isolate the date of the photograph.

• Use your knowledge (or easily researched data) on consumer products to help date a photograph:

  • Car make and model can be easily deduced from a photograph. Their release dates will help you put a floor to possible dates. Auto license plates will similarly tell you locations, possibly even dates.

    

Resources

Kathy shared a few of her favorite resources to look up these kinds of facts:

Google Lens

• lens.google/howlensworks

Since photographs often reference landmarks, we discussed the many resources available to find not only famous landmarks but also modest local buildings of historical interest listed in site registries.

National Trust for Historic Preservation

• savingplaces.org/stories/6-tips-to-document-historic-details-before-they-disappear

Library of Congress

• ask.loc.gov/genealogy-local-history/faq/304931

Registries of Historic Places

United States

• National Register of Historic Places

  • nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/index.htm

Canada

• historicplaces.ca/en/home-accueil.aspx

Australia

• dcceew.gov.au/parks-heritage/heritage/places/national-heritage-list

New Zealand

• heritage.org.nz/places

Hong Kong

• www.amo.gov.hk/en/heritage-trails/index.html

United Kingdom

(These are Wikipedia listings; others like britishlistedbuildings.co.uk are commercial sites.)

• Listed buildings in England

• Listed buildings in Scotland

• Listed buildings in Northern Ireland

• Listed buildings in Wales

These programs are posted in the Kathy’s Corner section of the as recordings as soon as possible after each event. You’re welcome to share these episodes with others you think might be interested. Recent articles that might also be interesting:

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Our next Kathy’s Corner: October 31st!

Next month, we’ll push our regular meeting from the third to the fourth Thursday, which happens to be Halloween here in the Americas, October 31. Always a fun holiday, it also takes us into the remembrance month of November. Find details and register in our Projectkin event calendar entry:

You’ll notice the calendar has already been updated. If you previously registered for October 24th, your link will now be valid for the 31st. Watch for an email shortly so you can update your own calendar and reminder system.

Share with a friend if you think they might be interested. It’s one of the very best ways to support us! 👋

Today’s talk was a conversation with Martie and built on a detailed post that Kathy shared with specific tips for handling artifacts in your collection, including memorabilia, keepsakes, ephemera, and trinkets.

You’ll want to take special note of the lists of resources included at the end of this article ☝️

That article drew on the eight steps Kathy has used as the foundation of her workflow with professional clients — modified slightly for a personal collection:

Join us in our next live program on September 26th. Find details and register in our Projectkin event calendar entry:

Today’s program also included several fun and helpful resources:

• The Show & Tales “Minisode” with Kathy Stone featuring her “Ship in a Bottle.”

• The US National Museum of African American History & Culture

• The World of Coca-Cola Museum in Atlanta, Georgia

• Mention of Photo Books for those suffering from dementia was a reference to a fascinating Projectkin project recipe presented by .

These programs are posted in the Kathy’s Corner section of the as recordings as soon as possible after each event. You’re welcome to share these episodes with others you think might be interested.

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If this post was shared with you, subscribe to get this and all recordings of our programs delivered straight to inbox.

This post was originally shared as an embed in the recording of Kathy’s Corner in August. I’m sharing it now with all members as a reminder of our next meeting on September 26th when Kathy will focus on how to research and add details about places to your photo collection. (How about that, just in time for our All About That Place series! 😉)

Let’s Talk About Stuff

In “8 Steps to Take You from Tubs of Photos to Tales of Yore,” I gave my eight steps to organizing and preserving photos, negatives, slides, and home movies. Now it is time to talk about the “stuff”—memorabilia, keepsakes, ephemera, and trinkets—all the things that aren’t photos we have inherited or collected. In the age of downsizing, smaller homes, and people looking for simpler lives through “decluttering,” these items can be the hardest to deal with. 

Going Through Stuff

Let’s examine the similarities and differences between memorabilia, keepsakes, ephemera, and trinkets.  All hold personal or historical significance, yet each serves a distinct purpose.

Memorabilia

Take memorabilia, for instance—these are objects collected for their connection to a particular event, person, or period, often with historical or cultural importance. Think of autographed sports gear or concert tickets, military records and medals, and mementos that capture a moment.

Keepsakes

Keepsakes, on the other hand, are cherished for sentimental reasons. They serve as reminders of special people, places, or events, like a locket from a loved one or a vacation souvenir.

Ephemera

Meanwhile, ephemera consists of items originally intended for short-term use, such as old letters or postcards, preserved to provide a snapshot of a specific moment.

Trinkets

Lastly, trinkets are small, often inexpensive objects that may lack deep meaning but are valued for their aesthetic or whimsical appeal—like my Pet Rock from the 1970’s, for example.

Here are 5 tips to help you sort and preserve those things that aren’t photos.

1. Gather and sort items into “Keep” and “Don’t Keep”

What items do you want to keep?  These items may be in any of the categories mentioned above.  What you keep is based on many things - connection, sentiment, history, value, whimsy or storage space. 

It is harder to decide what NOT to keep, so consider the same three criteria that we used for photos:  

• What things do people need to HAVE (such as jewelry, war medals, for example),

• What do people need to SEE (such as birth certificates, children’s drawings that are fragile and of little economic value),

• What do people need to KNOW about (such as cultural items, and awards). 

Remember that when deciding what to keep or not keep, you can preserve the memories of items without keeping the actual items.

2. Tell the Stories

Tell stories about any items that are important to you, whether you keep them or not.  What is it?  Where did it come from? Who owned it? How old is it? Why is it important?

For items you keep, this passes on the information about the object and why it is in your possession. 

3. Photograph the Items

Documents, artwork, letters, etc., can be scanned or photographed on a flatbed scanner. High-speed document scanners are very helpful for non-fragile documents. Photographing 3D physical items preserves them. This is a must for items you are not keeping but also a good idea for the items you are keeping. 

You will still have photos and stories if a disaster destroys the items.  To photograph items, keep the following in mind: 

• Remove distracting items—you want to focus on a single item;

• Use a camera or a phone – with the camera capabilities of today’s phones, they are fine for this purpose;

• Use a tripod or other support for the camera or phone – this avoids blurry photos;

• Make sure the object is well-lit and avoid glare -to help with lighting and glare, you can purchase various-sized lighting boxes (ShotBox); 

• Once photographed, the stories and information can be added to the photo description.

4. Preserve items you keep

You can display the items you keep or safely store them. If you are displaying items, shadow boxes, frames, and stands are all options. Display items away from rapid variations in temperature, potential water damage, and direct sunlight. UV glass is available to protect framed items.

You can also store your items. I recommend using archival storage containers rather than cardboard boxes or non-archival plastic containers. 

5. Dispose of the items you aren’t keeping

After you have photographed and told the story of the items you aren’t keeping, you have many options beyond throwing them away.  Also, considering these options may help you decide what things you don’t need to keep—the story and photo may be enough.

• First, consider asking friends and family if they would like the items. As a bonus, they now have the story that made it such a treasure. 

• If the item is of historical significance, check with public archives, museums, or the place of origin of the object. 

• If the item has value (to someone), such as vintage or collector’s items (even “kitsch”), you may be able to sell them.  It's a bit of work, but it gives you peace of mind to know the item is being treasured by someone else. 

• Finally, donate the items to charity so that someone else may find joy in them.  

Objects are often the most challenging part of preserving our legacy.  They take up more space than photos, are usually one-of-a-kind items, may represent a past period, or hold the memory of a loved one.  They are often also the most interesting to share the stories behind them. 

Pace yourself

Like sorting photos, this task does not need to be done all at once. Start with one object, follow these tips, and you will be motivated to examine other memorabilia, keepsakes, ephemera, and trinkets. 

Learn more at Kathy’s Corner

Don’t miss our monthly series of talks with to learn about how a professional handles these challenges as they’ve affected her personal collection. Programs are offered free over Zoom on the fourth Thursday of the month at 3/6 PM PT/ET and 11 PM in London. For more details, see the Projectkin Events Calendar:

References and Resources

Archival Methods Preservation Guide

• https://www.archivalmethods.com/help-center/archivery?v=revealCat

Archival Methods Blog – Storing Small Objects & Collectibles

https://www.archivalmethods.com/blog/storing-small-objects

Gaylord’s 7 Tips for Collectible & Artifact Storage

https://info.gaylord.com/resources/tips-for-collectible-artifact-storage

A Guide to Storing Collectibles

https://www.storagecafe.com/blog/a-guide-to-storing-collectibles/

Are your keepsakes a legacy, or a liability?

By Hazel Thornton, Organized for Life and Beyond org4life.com/keepsakes

Mom’s Boxes Part 1 to 6

by Hazel Thornton, Organized Life and Beyond org4life.com/moms-boxes

25 Tips for Memorabilia 

by Andi Willis, Good Life Photo Solutions goodlifephotosolutions.com/25-tips-for-memorabilia/

5 Questions to Ask Before Organizing Memorabilia

by Hazel Thornton, Organize for Life and Beyond, guest post for Good Life Photo Solutions goodlifephotosolutions.com/5-questions-organizing-memorabilia/

Organizing Childhood Keepsakes and Art (Yours and Theirs)

by Darla DeMorrow, Heartwork Organizing heartworkorg.com/2021/01/13/organizing-childhood-keepsakes-and-art-yours-and-theirs/

Academy of Legacy Leaders: A Group for Family History Enthusiasts 

by , Transformed WWII  sea bag