Do you keep hard copies?

Question

My brother is assembling/writing a family cookbook, and asked for "food centric" family photos. I pulled down some boxes from the very top shelf of the closet I haven't opened in the six years I've lived in this house and found tons of my old notes, photocopies of news article/obituraries, photo prints, etc. from when I started seriously doing family history around 1998. Remember when we used to make "research plans" for trips to county courthouses or state libraries?  And then take notes by pencil?

On the one hand, it's an interesting record of my own journey, as well as ""back up". On the other hand, it takes up a lot of room, and I rarely (apparently once every six years) look at it.

How much do you keep in hard copy? How/where do you store it?

G2G always has such interesting perspectives.

~ Ellen

Comments

I have about 15 binders full of birth certificates, marriage certificates, death certificates, photos, newspaper articles, that's before the internet days, 35 years ago and then using a typewriter, the family history typed up, and then added to them printed off the internet various useful information. As I am still adding family members here, I use my 15 binders as a reference nearly every day. While a lot of my family history is online, I do get a bit worried if I ever lost it all.

Answer 1

I do keep hard copies of a lot of what I have. They go into file drawers by family and a lot are stored in archival boxes on a shelf in the basement (we don't have humidity or mold problems). Photos are in the process of being scanned but I will still keep the originals in archival storage boxes and folders.

Answer 2

I keep hard copies, and use a file cabinet and binders.

Too much of the electronic material has a temporary existence. Internet sources come and go.

Comments

I retired out of the storage industry and while the technology to preserve and update things to newer standards is just about there, I agree about the temporariness since companies can go under and someone would need to migrate the data to a new one. That won't happen on its own. Also, media such as CD/DVD disks may not have the lifespan originally thought. Longer than magnetic material, but not permanent. I still have punch cards (Hollerith cards) that are only useful to show part of the history of storage.

Answer 3

Thanks for your response and suggestions.