Scanned Your Photos? Think Again!

tificates. Hoping this will help you avoid my mistakes. The story begins in December 2001. On the day my mom was interred, I met my stepmother to acquire items my father had left to me when he died five years earlier. Step-mother had refused for years to mail me the items even though I offered to compensate her. My emotions were raw from the burial that had to be rushed due to an impending snowstorm. Husband and I, with our two kids, then drove through our old neighborhoods to see our childhood sites. We stopped briefly to visit my beloved kindergarten teacher and then it was on to my stepmother's home. The visit was what I had expected it to be; I soldiered on with the thought running through the back of my mind, "This will be over soon." Hubby put the two cardboard boxes of my father's remaining possessions in our trunk and we drove south towards home. When we had driven far out of town we stopped at a hotel for the night; I looked through the boxes quickly and discovered photograph albums, certificates, a diary, war medals, work pins, and a few toys. Arriving home on New Year's Eve, the items went into a closet as I knew I needed time to look through them carefully. My mindset wasn't ready to do that. Two years later we moved to a new city and the boxes were placed on the top shelf of a hall closet. Someday I would have time to go through them. Fast forward to Summer 2008. Hurricanes had hit my area and we had lost a huge oak tree in our backyard. Luckily, it fell away from houses. If it had fallen 180 degrees instead onto my house, the kitchen and closet where these heirlooms were stored would have been devastated. I knew I had to scan and do it quickly. When faced with a crisis you must prioritize and be on terms with your decision. My priority was my children so I scanned the many scrapbooks I had made for them first. Then I moved on to my maternal side's two photo albums. Next would be my husband's family's photos which were in a large album. The summer was going quickly and I was left with one week before I had to return to my education job. I rushed to scan my father's photos. I knew I had a few more items to scan, my mom's address book, and my dad's World War 2 diary, but time was up. I saved the scanned photos to DVDs, Ancestry.com, and to Google Photos. I mailed DVDs to far-flung relatives in the hope that if the originals and my DVDs were destroyed, family in other parts of the U.S. might be able to have a copy I could get back or I could still see them online. Last Sunday, I got the brilliant idea to buy a cart that was on sale that matched our home office furniture. I intended to clean the office closet by placing stationery items in the new cart. Hubby loved it and thought it would be a good place to move our printer/scanner so we'd have more desk space. Then we decided to move the router. Of course, there were cable issues so my simple organizational strategy turned into much more than I had bargained for. Once we got back online, the office closet had a lot of space. Hmmm, it was cold and rainy so why not move some of the items from that hall closet into the office as that's where I keep binders of my family's records. The hall closet is odd-shaped and tall so I had to have hubby and son get the ladder and hand me down the boxes. I opened the first of my father's photo albums and compared the pictures to what I had uploaded years ago to Google Photos. The pages were not there. Neither were the next five pages. I then looked on Ancestry.com and some of the missing Google Photos were on Ancestry but not all of them. I also noticed that none of the photos I had taken with my phone since July 2021 were being saved on Google Photo. What was going on? At first, I thought maybe I had exceeded space on Google as I blogged last year about their policy change but that wasn't it; I had plenty of space. I checked with family and friends and they said they had noticed similar gaps. One relative said she had lost a year of her pictures that had been stored on Google Photos. A friend told me she had lost photos when she changed phones and hadn't checked the settings. I hadn't gotten a new phone and hadn't messed with settings; I see that there is now an "upload" button on my Android. I'm thinking this is a result of Google's policy change in June and they no longer automatically upload. Lesson 1 - check now and upload any phone photos if you use Google Photos. It will only upload a few at a time so be patient. But what about the missing pages that I had scanned in 2008? I know I didn't miss scanning all of those pages as some are on Ancestry.com. Lesson 2 - save somewhere where you alone control what's added. I am now additionally saving to Dropbox. Last week, I decided to create albums on Google Photos to help me quickly recheck all of my uploaded pictures to the hard copies I have on hand. That took a few days. Meanwhile, my office is now filled with items I have yet to double-check. Lesson 3 - once you scan and upload to where you are going to save, double-check to make sure that the item scanned clearly and was saved where you want it. This adventure had not been fun; it is boring to have to double-check everything. I can't stress enough how important it is, though. This time around I'm also scanning the covers of the albums and the inside pages as I have discovered notes my father left there. Lesson 4 - Those written words are as important as the photos contained in the album. It lets me know about his thoughts and feelings. I decided to save my photos in Dropbox in a different way than Google Photos. Google saves by the date they were uploaded, regardless of the year the photo was taken. In Dropbox, I'm saving by surname.first name.item description. I copy the photos into a Word document so I'm able to include additional information. I've typed who the photos belonged to, how I acquired them, the size of the album, its condition, the number of pages, etc. For the few albums that identified the people, I typed under the photo a transcription. Lesson 5 - what's nice about this is you can use the find (control + F key) to locate an item quickly. That's how I discovered the picture above. My father had simply written "grandpa" under the photo. It is not my grandpa; it's my father's grandpa meaning it is my great-grandpa, Theobald Leininger. I only had one picture of him, given to me by a distant family member. It was an awful photo - he is on the end of a group picture and mostly cut off but I was happy to have it. Lesson 6 - if I had only rechecked my photo album and thought about the captions from my father's viewpoint and not my own I would have realized I had this photo for 20 years. Since the weather outside remains frightful, I'm going to be spending whatever time it takes to get these items all scanned and saved. Trust me, the hardest part is getting started. I have one box completely done. Seeing my progress motivates me to move forward. Perhaps soon, my office will be clean and neat and I can go back to more "fun" genealogy

Find-A-Grave Memorial Changes - A How-To Guide

Do you have Find-a-Grave memorials for close relatives? If so, you'd be wise to update your RELATIONSHIP. This is a new change to the site, now owned by Ancestry.com. I'm not sure why this change was made but given how people have lost civility lately, I can only imagine what the folks at Find-A-Grave must be enduring by people who are demanding memorials be altered or reassigned. In grief, emotions are raw; I wouldn't be surprised if the Find-A-Grave staff is besieged with requests for changes. Whatever their reason for the change, I think it's a good one. It doesn't take much time to update your memorials and I'm going to give you two methods to update them. 1. Go to any known memorial you have and start there, clicking spouse and children to update OR 2. My preferred method so you don't miss anyone: Hover over your name on the ribbon on the right side of the screen. Your choices are Profile - Account - My Memorials - Sign Out. Click "My Memorials" which will list all the memorials you will need to update with your relationship info. Here's how to update each memorial: 1. Look at the picture above - Clicking the down error next to EDIT displays options; click "Edit Memorial." 2. If you DO NOT manage the Memorial it will not allow you to edit. Instead this is what you'll see (SUGGEST EDITS)

3. By clicking "SUGGEST EDITS" you CANNOT update the bio but under "Other," you can suggest corrections or addtions to be made. Make sure after clicking the "+ Suggest other corrections" and add your input, you click "Save Suggestions."

4. If you created or had the memorial transferred to you, you will be able to make changes and add your relationship. After you have followed Step 2 above, scroll down to the bottom of the page. This is what you'll see:

5. Simply click in two of the boxes to update; the first is a Yes or No to the question Are you a close relative? The second click will be for you to include the relationship by answering "I am their . . ." 6. When a selection is made, a check box is displayed that says "Show relationship in source information." If you check it, it will show on the main page that the public sees what you have determined your relationship is to the memorial individual.

By leaving the box UNchecked, Find-A-Grave staff will be able to see the relationship but not the general public. I chose to uncheck but you do whatever you like. My memorials only show "Created by: Lori Samuelson." 7. Make sure you click "Save Changes" or you haven't updated the memorial! If you make an error, no worries, just go back in and follow the steps again. I purposely entered myself as a cousin when a relationship should have been niece to see what would happen. I just had to go back in and re-edit. I was easily able to change my relationship. Here are some caveats: I have my spouse and my memorial already listed because no one will be doing this for me after I'm deceased. There's an option for me to select I'm my husband's spouse/partner but none for me so I selected spouse/partner to myself. I can understand why Find-A-Grave didn't include "self" as an option as they probably don't have a lot of people who think ahead to do that. Also, keep in mind that the relationships must be close - there is no option for a great grandparent, great uncle/aunt, or delineation between first, second, etc. cousins. There is also no way for me to add that my relationship is through marriage. I suppose I could have my husband create an account and then I'd transfer management to him but we all know that's not only a lot of extra work, I'd still be managing his sites so why bother with all that. Therefore, I made myself my in-laws child. If you have many aunts and uncles, you will reach a limit on how many times you may select niece/nephew. Larger families I have no idea a solution you can use.

Racing and Genealogy

Typically I blog on Saturday mornings but yesterday I participated in a very special event for me; I took part in my first 5K. I do like to walk but not run. My husband signed us both up to be in the race that we were already going to be attending to cheer on a family member who was entered into the marathon category. It was a long drive to and from the event and that gave me time to reflect on how much racing is like genealogy. One might disagree with me as running is all about getting somewhere quickly and genealogy is the opposite. Yet, there are striking similarities I've noticed. I have never been a runner and really had no desire to become one. Our family joke is I would rather stand and fight than run. Pretty much. The truth is initially I really had no desire to be a genealogist. I had an interest in discovering answers to family questions. That interest, over time, became a passion. Successful runners have that passion to get up at the crack of dawn in all sorts of weather to hone their skills. Genealogists stay up into the wee morning hours doing research online. I would even go so far as saying genealogists get a version of runner's high when they locate that long-lost document or solve a family mystery. When runners are patiently waiting for the start of the race, they swap stories of past races. Runners also encourage each other to continue on the course. Genealogists cannot help themselves, when they get together, sharing their past finds and supporting their colleagues to continue on to a victory when researching a brick wall. Runners have tricks of the trade that the novice would have little awareness about - like pickle juice. Genealogists have many of their own tricks, I enjoy sharing mine via my blog. As I jumped into racing yesterday I once jumped into genealogy. I learned to warm up, wear my broken in gym shoes, and make sure I stayed hydrated. The destination is often not close to my home. Not much different than preparing for a genealogical research trip! Getting to the finish line is difficult for both runners and genealogists as there are so many unexpected obstacles that pop up. One of the shared ones is the pandemic. We pivot, we adjust, we have our workarounds to reach the end. We eventually get there. The biggest surprise I learned about racing was the sloth award. Who knew there was a coveted award for coming in last place! The point is that endurance is more important than speed. I like that. That should be running in the back of every genealogist's mind. Happy Hunting!

Tips for Writing Your Memoir

Happy New Year! I've been busy in the two weeks I took off for the holidays - I wrote my memoir.

Go ahead and laugh. You, too, can easily record your memories and take this off your To-Do list. A little background info first . . .

For years, every time a funny situation or a strange happening occurred I'd say, "I'm going to put that in my book someday." I never quantified when "someday" would be. The week of December 6th I got three notices from the universe that it was time for me to get cracking on my life story.

The first happened on St. Nicholas Day which according to my family, he was Croatian. I know he wasn't but my family culture was such that everyone who was revered was somehow Croatian. Investigating my family stories cleared up quite a few of the tales but we always celebrated his feast day by leaving out our shoes and magically, overnight, they would be filled with treats (think an apple, candy, or cookies). We'd have a pork roast for dinner which I never figured out how that was connected to St. Nick but it was delicious.

This past St. Nick Day I gave a lecture at my local library on interviewing family members. One attendee asked me what to do if he happened to be the oldest family member. I suggested he interview himself. On Thursday of that week, I was volunteering at my city's historical society when a visitor asked me how long I had lived in the area. I replied, "Nearly 50 years." and he said, "You're an old-timer then." I guess I am but I hadn't considered the title. The following day I was doing research at a nearby town for an upcoming journal article I'm writing and I overheard the docent give some incorrect information about the surrounding area. I had lived there for almost 10 years so I experienced firsthand what she was discounting. I put in my two cents and she replied, "I guess you should be giving the tours since you're an old-timer." Wow, that's twice in 24 hours. Thanks, Universe, for the reminder.

I went home and seriously considered the need to interview myself. I do have memories that are of historical value and I'd like to recall them now while I still can. Alzheimer's runs in my family and as we've all learned the past two years, life is unpredictable.

The problem has always been I wasn't sure how to start. I decided to try by speaking to my computer. I opened Microsoft Word and on the ribbon, clicked "Dictate," then started speaking. The program types whatever you say. If you have issues typing effectively and efficiently this is a cheap way to get your thoughts down on paper. Notice I said "cheap." Yes, there are programs you can purchase but I wanted something instantly I didn't have to pay for.

I talked for a few minutes and then looked at what was recorded. It wasn't bad, considering some of the information I was saying was not in English. Was it correct? No, but it was close. The bigger issue was that Word does not add punctuation. If you say "period" after your sentence it will type out the word "period." Same with commas. Sigh.

It took me longer to go back and edit what I had just said than it would have if I had typed it in the first place. Even so, I would not have been able to start this project had I not spoken first. Staring at a blank Word document or a piece of paper was not going to move me forward. I am extremely verbal so I had to speak about what I wanted to record to begin the project.

Once I began I had no writer's block. The memories just flowed, however, they didn't flow in chronological order. That's okay, too. My goal was to just let my brain download my life while I typed.

I didn't care about spelling or grammar. If I forgot someone's name I'd just leave a few spaces or hit the tab key and keep writing. Funny but the name would later resurface and I could go back and insert it in the space.

I didn't write every day but I nearly did. I spent about 8 hours writing on the weekend and only 1-3 hours during the weekdays. I also decided to skip the years my children were small because I had created scrapbooks for them that recorded the good, bad, and ugly of those times. I refer to that in my book.

I have the free version of Grammarly and that helps tremendously with the spelling and punctuation. It underlines using a faint red line to highlight what needs possible correction. You just click on the underlined word and options are given to you.

Word of caution - the recalling of all of these memories does result in some odd dreams so be aware of that occurring. Nothing sinister, mind you, just a mix of your life events. For example, I dreamed about my deceased mother and a maternal aunt, along with a living cousin who was holding a beautiful baby. My aunt told me she had something important to tell me. I then woke up. I had written about the cousin's first child the day before. Just want to warn you that your dreams may become extremely vivid while you're writing.

Here's what my plan now is . . . I'm going through my old photos and inserting them where appropriate in my story. Seeing the photos evoked a few more memories that I hadn't recalled so I added a couple of paragraphs here and there. I was amazed that for the most part, my recall was fairly in chronological order. The most out-of-order time was in my college years. I don't know why that was the case and I'd be interested to hear if you have the same result. I had completely forgotten about one of my husband's first jobs and which summer we had gone on our first vacation. Was it between freshman and sophomore year or sophomore/junior?

Here's another item to put on my to-do list; I discovered my photos are not in the order I want them to be so I'm creating albums. I use Google Photos and Dropbox to store them as I'm paranoid about losing the originals to a disaster. I've scanned them all but they were saved by when I scanned them and not by the person so I've got to work on that someday (when the universe tells me to haha.)

I'm almost done adding the photos and will then pull out my genealogical file on myself and look at documents. I have two from the hospital where I was born and they both have a different time of my birth. Lovely, right? My mom came up with the third time so I will never know for sure what time I arrived into the world. I'll include both documents that wouldn't be readily available to a descendant.

I then plan to have the story saved to a hardcover book, probably through Amazon but I've gotten that far to make a final determination. I'll keep you updated when I get there and please let me know what you've done, Dear Reader, as I'd appreciate the input.

Here's to Your Story in 2022!