Guides
Family Photo Archive: Recording Place Clues
A family photo archive records place clues by preserving original captions, separating standardized place names, and noting dates, sources, and uncertainty.
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Guides
Guides
A family document scanning workflow overview
This family document scanning workflow overview follows a home archive from sorting and pilot scans through file naming, quality checks, metadata, and backups.
Guides
Home archive supplies learning plan: practice a double box
A home archive supplies learning plan for a weekend: practice building a reusable double cardboard box, place hand holes, cushion it, and test it.
Guides
4 points on home archive lighting that matter
Lighting a collection: lamp choice is a preservation decision as well as a photographic one. Why some LED lamps fade material faster than the lamps they replaced.
Guides
Former homes map, one decision at a time
Former homes map research: use Sanborn atlases, USGS topographic maps, aerial photos, and lidar to compare a building across editions.
Guides
Packing a photograph for restoration takes five careful steps
Preparing an original to leave the house: sending a family item to a studio is the riskiest hour of its life. What to check before it travels, how to pack it.
Guides
Library and Archives Canada genealogy records: what you can request and what stays closed
Library and Archives Canada genealogy records cover censuses, military files and civil records, but privacy law keeps some files closed and fees apply.
Guides
Does PIPEDA apply when you share records from your Canadian family archive?
PIPEDA reaches your Canadian family archive only when you handle personal records for payment. Here is where private keeping ends and the law begins.
Guides
Quebec parish, notarial and civil registers for bilingual family research
Quebec parish, notarial and civil registers record the same family three ways, and reading all three is how a bilingual line goes back further.
Guides
Where to Buy Archival Supplies in Canada Without US Shipping?
Archival supplies in Canada come from Canadian vendors billing in CAD, which avoids duty, brokerage and cross-border shipping. Here is how to judge them.
Guides
Digitize audio cassette tapes: how to check each file
Digitize audio cassette tapes, then test the file: peaks, length against the side, hiss and pitch, plus what each fault means and how to fix it.
Guides
Fireproof Safe for Documents: UL Ratings That Actually Matter
A fireproof safe for documents is only as good as its UL 72 class. Compare paper and media safes, endurance times and the one limit they all share.
Guides
Hurricane Photo Storage in Florida: A Pre-Season Prep Checklist
Hurricane photo storage in Florida starts with a waterproof document bag, an evacuation photo archive kit, and a 75°F heat limit before June 1.
Guides
Library Photo Scanning Canada: Free Options at Public Branches
Library photo scanning in Canada varies by city: which branches lend scanners, what to ask before you book, and how to store prints afterwards.
Guides
How to Preserve a Military Uniform: Padded Hangers and Acid-Free Storage
To preserve military uniform pieces, pad the shoulders, remove metal, and box the wool flat in acid-free storage. Here is the order that works.
Guides
A beginner project: free family archive reading
A beginner project in family archive care: free institutional guides, journals, blogs and library resources for organizing and preserving family history.
Guides
Condition reports for family history collections: what to photograph and write down
A condition report for family collections: what to photograph, what to write down, what to check before handling, and why a dated record tracks change over time.
Guides
How to organize a family collection: select first, then label, copy and record what exists
A beginner's order for organizing a family collection: select what to keep, group it, label boxes and files, copy the fragile and the digital; check twice a year.
Guides
How to sequence a family photograph project from triage to storage
A working sequence for family photographs: identify the processes, set the conditions, copy what is fragile, then house the originals and leave them alone.
Guides
Book lice in a document cupboard: what the insects tell you about damp
Psocids in a cupboard as a humidity warning: the 58 percent threshold, what a sealed box can and cannot do, and storing papers in a small flat.
Guides
Cupboard versus closet for a small photo archive, ranked by risk
Running a photograph archive without a spare room: choosing the least bad cupboard, monitoring it properly, and using an upright freezer as cold storage.
Guides
Memory display practice for a weekend: reversible paste and mat windows
Weekend spent learning to mount and support: a two-day practice plan done entirely on scrap and copies, cooking a reversible paste, cutting mat windows.
Guides
Starting a family archive: count the collection and fix storage before buying anything
How to begin a family archive: count before you buy, fix the storage location first, keep original order, and do only reversible work in the first pass.
Guides
Memory display ideas how to mount a copy
Memory display ideas how to mount a copy: use reversible supports for the original, keep glazing off the surface, and leave a stuck original in its frame.