how to archive family keepsakes by denise may levenick

In today’s digital world, inventories and tracking of who-has-what can easily be done online. In families with large amounts of “things” there may need to be several Caretakers. Care does have to be taken with copyrights and ownership if the Curator is not the legal Creator. It might be a person who gathered papers or photos or scrapbooks, or someone who did historic, pedigree or land ownership research.

It may be someone who left you the material, or it may be someone else. The Creator is the original owner of “the stuff”.The Curator has a good understanding of the whole collection, what is significant, how to preserve, display and document it and, most importantly, how to share access with others.One person may hold all these roles or it may be divided among several. Levenick talks about the three major roles that we play when we archive: the Curator, the Creator, the Caretaker. That is a part of “the stuff” that needs to be organized.

Even if a relative didn’t leave a thumbdrive of family papers or the oldest hard drive known to man, we may have scanned in some of their materials to our own systems years ago. While traditionally those of us who have inherited “things” dealt largely in boxes and trunks, today’s family archivist needs also to be able to handle digital media. My approach, however, will also draw from my own background in computer data systems. The main guidebook I’m using to help me know how to archive is Denise Levenick’s How to Archive Family Keepsakes ( Family Tree Books). My guess is that many of us should join this journey together. This is the 2nd article in what I plan to be a series. This is Nancy with Dusty Old Thing and I’ve finally decided to archive my mother’s things and to do it properly. Sometimes we just have to face up to the fact that those things we said we’d organize “some day, one day” are still in the same place and that, as the old song goes, “ the days dwindle down to a precious few…“.

How to archive family keepsakes by denise may levenick