Preserving and Procrastination

What happens when a Family History historian hears about a problem with archiving pictures and doesn’t act upon that information until sometime afterwards? 

I know I am talking to the choir, so I will just say one word…disaster.

Recently I have begun working with a long term genealogist and local historian in my community to begin archiving his years of work and accumulation of both pictures and records.  The first thing he brought out to identify, digitalize, and catalog, was his wife’s old pictures that had been carefully put in the old Sticky Album Pages. He knew that the sticky paper could cause problems with the pictures, but had procrastinated removing them to a safer medium.

What we found was the pictures had actually melded with the sticky backing and could not be easily removed without a risk of the picture tearing. The color pictures had faded although the black and white ones were not affected in appearance. Polaroid pictures did not stick. 

The first task was to work on breaking the glue bond. He kept saying I cannot believe the pages have welded together. The work was tedious, to follow the instructions per the recommended video by the Smithsonian Institute for saving your pictures from sticky paper.

We cut the hard board sheets the pictures were glued to and then proceeded to ease the pictures off with a thin blade or floss, which ever was working.

I then scanned the pictures and sorted them according to date, and family. We are now in the process of putting the originals in new acid free albums and storing according to Surname and Place if applicable.

The moral of my short story is don’t put off what you know you NEED to do because in the long run it will cost you more time.

Rescued From The Trash

After my Great Aunt Kate (Baker) Ryan died in 1987, my father discovered many of Auntie Kate's papers and other documents including a couple of family bibles in the trashcan. Luckily, genealogy had become a passion of mine and we had talked frequently about the need to keep and preserve family documents.

 So, Dad took them out of the trash and sent them to me.

1915 Affidavit
©Cheri Hudson Passey

Among the paperwork rescued that day was a 22 May 1915 notarized affidavit filed in Santa Cruz County, California by a Mrs. Lydia A. Knight. She was testifying to the validity of a photocopied page from her husband Physician Benjamin Knight's "Visit List". She stated that it was written in his own hand and that it recorded

 " ...the name of his patient, the date of his consultation with or service for them, and, in the event that he attended a woman at child birth, the name of her husband was set forth in said book and the date of the birth of the child was designated by a "B" if it was a boy, and by the letter "G" if it was a girl."

 The page in question was from the week of 6 August 1893.

Week of 6 August 1893 Visit List
Dr. Benjamin Knight
Santa Cruz, California
©Cheri Hudson Passey

James "Jimmy"Patrick Ryan (1893-1950), was the husband of Auntie Kate. He was born, according to family records, 6 August 1893 in Santa Cruz County, California. His birth is recorded on the photocopied Visit List with his father's name-P.F. Ryan, the "B" in the Wednesday the 9th column and marks on Thursday the 10th and Saturday the 12th said to have been an indication of a home visit.
The total cost of the medical care received was $20, the usual cost testified by the Doctor's wife for childbirth care.
According to the affidavit, the B on the 9th indicates the actual birth date of Jimmy Ryan.
 Jimmy would have been 21 in 1915 when this document was signed. Was his service in the military the reason he needed proof of his birth date?
 
 And what of the other names on the list? This may be the only document that puts them in Santa Cruz County, California during the week of 6 August 1893.
The names are faint and hard to read:
R.J. Maxwell
Charles Baxter
M.W. Mellott
A. Batts
S.W. Alexander
Frank Bernardi
Albert [?]
J.A. [?]
G. Anthony
H.F. Kr[?]
S[?] Weeks
P.F. Ryan
Miss Maggie Morini
G[?] Bunting
Artemis Buckham
Joseph Willow
F.C. Harris

Pictures, documents, family bibles and other records sadly can end up in the trashcan after a death.
Kate (Baker) Ryan was the Baker family genealogist. How grateful she would have been that her nephew, my father, rescued some of the treasures she had collected.

Two important lessons can be learned from that day in 1987. Have a plan for your family documents when you are no longer living and educate others on the importance of preserving their family history.

Rescued from the trash. Thanks, Dad.

Cheri