I've learned many lessons the hard way regarding preserving, cataloguing, and sharing family photos. I don't develop guidelines at Wikitree, but consider this one user's lessons learned. Kindly phrased criticism always welcome.
For examples of many of these techniques, see the Yolanda Folcz Collection
1. Group your photo collection as much as possible by family lines – don't mix up grandmother's paternal photos with grandfather's maternal line – keeping associated photos together will help you find those pesky Unknowns later on.
2. If photos are in an album, try to keep them there. Significant family members are often grouped together, even if you don't know that right now.
3. With loose photos, or those you have to remove from an album, discreetly number and label the back so the order and provenance of photos will be preserved. Writing "my uncle" isn't much help without an author's name. On old fiber-based photos use a #2 pencil – it won't bleed through and it's fixable. I have 100-year old photos with pencil inscriptions that are very readable.
4. Don't discard the Unknowns hastily. I have identified many Unknowns after finding a cousin who recognized that person – and I've helped others the same way. The internet is increasing that success. (See point 1 to increase your odds of success)
5. There's only one photo, but lots of cousins, so scan your items. Yes, you can use your smartphone in a pinch, but decent scanners are now available in most "all-in-one" printers at a reasonable cost. I'm not a paid reviewer, but I also have an ($$$) Epson V750 large flatbed scanner – it's actually gotten more expensive over time, because it does a great job on both prints and negatives. I have 100's of pre-1900 photos that helped me justify that expense. Wikitree doesn't accept TIFF files – so a good-sized JPG is an okay, but not perfect, alternative – and stay under the 10Mb Wikitree file limit. (PDF's are fine and can get a lot of data into a small space – though they take an extra click to open. See the 100+ page E W Blake Diary for example)
6. This isn't a tutorial, but do learn to add data to your digitized/scanned photo. Information you add to your photo, such as a caption, is "metadata," and is stored in addition to the camera details (date, location, exposure, etc.). If I send you one of my scans you can open it in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, Adobe Bridge, Lightroom (and others) – and my metadata will come with it: captions, keywords, source of photo, etc. On my Mac just doing a "Get Info" (Cmd-I) will reveal the embedded data elements. Not all data elements will be read by all programs, but the image maintains the data that was written to it. Example: I uploaded a family photo to the Amazon photo website – all I can see there is the photo name and basic file info, BUT if I then download that photo and open it on my desktop – all the original metadata is preserved: keywords, source, caption. (Alas, Wikitree seems to strip off that metadata - so use the Comment section to record that information)
For extra credit:
7. For an increased level of preservation, I often add a "tab" or label to many of my photos. In a program (like Photoshop Elements) you can select Image –> Resize –> Canvas and add a blank tab on the bottom of the photo. Typing the photo information in the tab is an additional/alternate way to store the data. The photo is not affected – you can crop off the data tab to print the photo. Either scan the back of the photo, or at least record the notes and printed information – the "Aldrich & Co., Reno, Nevada" studio was probably in business less than 20 years. This information is great for narrowing down the provenance of your ancestor. ("What was Uncle Oscar doing in Reno…?")
8. My final, often debated, technique to preserve provenance is to add a "watermark" to my uploaded images. Using the Photoshop example, choose the Type tool, select a pale color, or use black type and decrease the Opacity to 40% (or so), and type on the image itself (discreet is okay…), so there's a faint embedded image indicating where this photo came from. I can't tell you how many times I've been excited to see that someone else has a photo of my g-g-grandperson – only to discover that it was the same photo that I'd uploaded at an earlier date. I'm happy to share my photos (they aren't "mine" – I just happen to be the current, all too brief, custodian). The watermark can inform you right away where this photo originated. If a historian wants to use my photo of General Martin Curtis in a publication he's able to find me (and he did!) and I can happily send him a non-watermarked version for his use.
9. How many photos should you upload? Wikitree seems to be purposely vague on this point. Ok, here's my nickel's worth: Almost every photo taken before 1900 is a valuable historic artifact – there aren't many, and most are formal family portraits. After about 1910 "Kodaking" became a verb and the many informal snapshots of life appeared – a judicious selection of photos representing significant milestones seems appropriate for a genealogical database. After WWII the popular deluge of photos began. The guideline I've used for modern photos is to remember Wikitree isn't Facebook and storage isn't free – be selective and representative in your uploads. This applies to Sources as well. The Bible records, old letters, and handwritten marriage certificates I have do not exist elsewhere – they need preservation. Contrariwise, readily available vital records do not need to be (re)uploaded to Wikitree – instead, add a simple, accurate reference to its location instead, with a hyperlink as an added benefit.
…respectfully submitted
