Preserving family history in its infancy

As you know if you've been reading 100 Years in America, I have been blessed with family members (one who deserves particular recognition) who have saved photographs of several generations of my family for many years and kindly shared them with myself and others. (A great big thank-you to all of the family photo pack rats out there!)

I've enjoyed viewing these old photos and getting a visual glimpse into the lives of my ancestors. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Throughout the process of viewing and scanning the older family photos that I have, I have been naggingly aware of the boxes of more recent photographs that I have left shoe-boxed and unlabeled (pre-digital photography in my family). Now, thanks to an offer from Scan My Photos International and Apple's experience with it (thanks for sharing, Apple), I've been inspired to delve into more recent photographic family history and pull out those shoeboxes. What fun it has been to go through these photos. Most are only a decade old, but how time has flown!

In order to pull out 1,000 4x6 photos to send for scanning, I've been going through picture after picture and enjoying the process. Unfortunately, I made it to 1,000 with photos representing only less than two years photographically-speaking. Looks like I'll be a regular customer if I like the service that I receive from Scan My Photos...

If you haven't gone through your own family photos recently, I strongly encourage you to do so. As family historians we work so hard to preserve the history of bygone generations. Let's not forget the more recent history of our families. It may be still in its infancy, but as parents know, babies grow up all too quickly!

Anyone else have experience with this company and this process? If you are a Blogger, Flickr, Facebook or MySpace user, you can also take advantage of this free scanning offer (shipping charges do apply). If not, check out the services of Scan My Photos. It's never too early to start preserving family history!