Sharing family memories
Identify and preserve photographs
A photograph preserves a scene, not necessarily a certain identity. Notes on the back, the studio and visible objects are clues to document.
Read the guide ↗ROOT & GENEALOGY
Sharing family memories
Family history brings together evidence, voices, images and objects. Preserve context and uncertainty to pass on a faithful account.
Suggested route
- Documentary photographs: what they show
- Identify and preserve photographs
- Read a family photograph album
- Preserve original papers and photographs
- Organise family letters and papers
- Write a documented family history
- Tracing occupations and their context
Your expected result
Prepare an inventory linking objects and files to provenance. Add captions, citations and certainty, then adapt public versions to permissions.
Sharing family memories
Write a documented family history
A family account is more useful when it separates documented events, memories and hypotheses. It can remain engaging without inventing an ancestor’s feelings.
Read the guide ↗Sharing family memories
Organise family letters and papers
Private papers preserve provenance and relationships between documents. Useful organisation retains those links while improving access. Describe the collection before rearranging individual sheets.
Read the guide ↗Sharing family memories
Read a family photograph album
An album preserves order, captions and associations as well as images. Document the whole before removing a print or rearranging pages.
Read the guide ↗Sharing family memories
Preserve original papers and photographs
Digitisation facilitates access but does not replace the original object. Preservation depends on materials, condition and storage.
Read the guide ↗Sharing family memories
Documentary photographs: what they show
This guide explains how to study a real photograph and its catalogue record. This page’s illustrative image is fictional and is not genealogical evidence.
Read the guide ↗Sharing family memories
Tracing occupations and their context
An occupation places a person in a local economy and may distinguish namesakes. It alone cannot identify a family.
Read the guide ↗