2020-10 Oct - Add at Least One Relative’s Photo

Oct 11, 2020 family history photos

From your Ward Temple & Family History Consultants:

Photos in Family Search during a Pandemic

For Oct 2020, we invite each youth and adult to add at least one photo of an ancestor or relative onto familysearch.org in the memories section.

Context

During this COVID-19 pandemic, we are all getting better at Zoom, and it is socially distanced. And phones still work. So if you get stuck on your own, we can use zoom to screen-share, see what you’re seeing and talk you through your obstacle. For now, visits at your home are postponed until after the pandemic. Having used virtual technologies (like zoom) for 7+ years, and can walk you through it one-on-one as I have done for others. You can still help your own family of the past during this challenging time. Temple & Family History Consultants can help.

• Sorry for the lack of messages for 6 months. The Pandemic threw us off for a while on getting the monthly Family History communications sent. But now that virtual everything seems to be the new normal, let’s continue. We’re still a ward family, just spread out and meeting virtually.

HOW TO

The 7 EASY Steps to putting a photo into Family Search:

1. Find paper photos of relatives who have passed on.
   • Hint: Talk to aunts, uncles, parents, grandparents to find out who has what. Call them and ask for a photo.
2. Digitize the paper photo. Use a phone to to take a picture of the paper picture. Or for older tech, use a scanner.
3. Edit the photo if needed (i.e. crop) (smart phone apps can edit images now, and free PC/Mac software like Gimp (gimp.org) can edit resolution and crop). Or use your favorite image editor. Free tools are nice.

   • TIP: PNG is a good file format. JPG is a lossy format that loses data over time, due to the way the digital information is compressed. Suggest you save as a TIFF or PNG file. The free Gimp PC/Mac app can convert between formats. Open as JPG and export as PNG. Done.

4. Login to familysearch.org and find the relative.
5. Select the Memories tab/link for that person.
6. Select Upload Photo button and select the photo you have.
7. Add a title, identify the people in the photo. If you know, add the approximate date.
   • PLEASE make sure you find out who is in the photo and annotate the Family Search memory with details of who is in the photos before those who know go to the other side of the veil.
   • Don’t lose the family knowledge by waiting until it’s gone from mortality. If you want an advanced primer on how to select each person and link to their Family Search record, we can show you in 5 min how to do that (using Zoom).

Yay! That’s it. You’ve added a memory that will not be destroyed by fire or lost when a relative passes to the other side.

What a great way to better get to know your ancestors and relatives. It’s easy and your grand kids will love you for this small service. I have really enjoyed the old photos I got from my Grandparents, so I speak from experience.

If you get stuck with the software, Ward family history consultants can help you digitize and edit photos too, virtually over Zoom to see and talk together.

HERE A LITTLE, THERE A LITTLE - Feel better by doing small & simple things. Great things come to pass over time, so don’t give up. We can help you start!

Happy to serve you,

Your Ward Temple & Family History Consultants (call, text, or zoom any one of us for help with your family history)