I figure it is about time I sat down and wrote something on here about what I have been up to. But that is kinda hard, because I haven't been doing all that much. In fact, I have officially spent a week scanning my great-grandma's old photos and negatives now. Not straight, of course, but crammed in to all my after work hours and my entire weekend... and I still have a good sized stack of old negatives left. The negatives take the longest, 5-10 minutes each, whereas regular photos only take about 3 minutes to do 4. Needless to say, the last little bit of work is taking the longest.I actually really enjoy the work for the most part. Even though it requires me to be in front of my slow computer (grrr!) sitting in a hard, broken computer chair (even with pillows it's hard!) and my eyes are about to go on strike, I still love the chance to preserve these photos that so few people in the family have seen. I have never been big on family history work, because to me all that meant was digging though censuses and parish records to find some obscure, misspelled name that may or may not be who you are looking for. I have helped my mum with it in the past, and even though I don't mind the work, it isn't something that I really find intriguing.
With my purchase of a scanner (about a year and a half ago), all that changed. Even though I still don't do traditional family history work, I now find myself fascinated with preserving the history we have, and finding out the stories of these people I see in the thousands of pictures I have scanned over the last several months. I just wish I had a way to date the photos I scan and identify all the people I see. I love the gems I find in my forays through the past - I just wish I had access to MORE old photos, I feel like I am just brushing the surface of what is there, and am so afraid that I will miss out on something important that should be preserved. (To all my family, if you know about any old photo stashes I should raid and scan, let me know and I will try to get to them.)
Even though this last week has been a lot of hard work (I am cramming all the scanning because the owners want them back asap), it has really been a blessing to me to be able to learn so much more about my great-grandma and her family, people I had never really known anything about before, in spite of the good relationship I have with her. I think now, that relationship will become even better, and that makes me very excited.
(Extra credit brownie points to anyone who can ID both photos posted here)
can you give us a hint of what side of the family your pic are?
ReplyDeleteHINT: The one on top is from my dad's side, the one on the bottom is from my mum's.
ReplyDeleteChristy oh dear Christy. I feel your pain. Scanning is such a slow long process. I have been scanning the photos that were left here at grandmas house (some of them) and it is really tedious. A lot of them are more recent photos-though I will gladly get together and compile them with you. Regarding all of Grandma's photos I will make a copy on a CD as soon as my computer will cooperate and burn. I will also send you anything I have scanned so far. Great job though-it is slow, but worth it.
ReplyDeleteOk, I give... the top one is my dad :) you can blame that one on older sisters with a great sense of humor. The one on the bottom is my Grandpa, Earl Murray with his dog Bobby - one of my favorite finds from my Great grandma's collection.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE old pictures! I've also been fascinated by the stories of relatives I never met. Kudos to you for all the digging, organizing and scanning. You are becoming a historian. Sorry about the nasty, slow computer. Maybe the district will give you a raise (LOL) so you can buy a new one.
ReplyDeleteHey Christy!! This is Hollie (Natalie's little sister). I am not sure you remember me too much (I worked in West and roomed with Janae), but I love blogging and Natalie told me about your blog so I had to check it out. It is a really peaceful blog (that may sound weird, but it is nice and relaxing to look at). I always think that I need to work on geneology, but am not too interested in the "traditional" stuff, but this is good insight to other things that I can do because I LOVE pictures. Anyway, sorry this is a forever long comment. You look great! Tell Janae I say hi and feel free to check out my blog if you like sturges-family.blogspot.com and Natalie has a blog too but you will need an invite for hers so if you don't have one let me know.
ReplyDelete