How to Overcome the Challenges of Inherited Family Photos

Are you lucky enough to have inherited old family photos?  While that is certainly a blessing, there are a lot of possibilities for additional challenges.  Maybe some photos aren't labeled so you don't know who is in the photo.  Maybe you have duplicates.  Maybe you just have so many photos that the thought of doing something with them is pretty daunting.

One of the biggest motivators, I think, to getting on the ball and getting photos out of boxes and into albums is this:  preservation.  If they're not preserved properly, photos can kind of decay over time.  And you certainly don't want that happening to that box of pictures from your mom.  Photos are sensitive to light, heat, and humidity (and water), as well as whatever is touching them.  Photos in a box in the attic are a ticking time bomb, so to speak.  Remember those magnetic photo albums from the 1970s?  Turns out the acids those pages were made of actually eat up pictures over time.

I'd like to help!  Getting those photos out of boxes not only preserves them but allows them to be shared.  What would photos of your grandparents mean to your children or nieces/nephews?  What about to your siblings?  They would be eternal gifts!

I published three articles about dealing with inherited photos that can help:

• The first one, {"Negatives, Old Photos, and Boxes, Oh My!"} has several great resources for identifying old photos, some suggestions for negatives and slides, and tips on how to preserve old photos well.
• The second one, {"Helps for Dating Nineteenth Century Photos"} dives into various types of photos, from tintypes to cabinet cards, which can help you come up with approximate dates for those precious photos in your keep.
• The last one, {"One Solution to Too Many Photos: Family Yearbooks"} is a great resource for all your photos, from old family photos you've inherited to all the pictures you've taken so far this year. 

To read each one, just click the links!  These articles will help you as you sort through your treasured photos.  If you need some organizational help, there are some good tips {right here at this link}.