SueScott Loc: Hammondsville, Ohio

In the end that is the only legacy that counts!

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

As several people have noted, prints on paper have lasted since the 1800s. Also as noted, both paper prints and digital are easy to lose if there's no interest.

One way to keep some interest is to preserve the names of the people in the photo. I have a box of 1800s photos that someone wrote the names on the back. That increases the value of the photo to the family by at least a factor of 100. The box of photos without names on the back is useless. Digital photos are a bit trickier. Yes, you can put the names in the metadata, but few people know how to access the metadata. To be useful, the names have to be overlaid on the photo within the file. There are several ways to do this. Many programs will allow you to add text to a digital image. You have the choice of placing text on the individual people or adding white space to the bottom of the image file and placing the text there. For groups I occasionally convert the image to a line drawing (edge detection). I then erase the facial details and place a number there. I can then add a list of names associated with the numbers. This shows who is where in the group, but it is cumbersome and is located on a separate image file. You can of course combine the two files into one image and print the whole thing, then fold the print over so the outline and list are on the back. It's a fair amount of work, but so is finding out the names of the people in the group. I only do this for family groups that I believe will have some interest in the future.

BboH Loc: s of 2/21, Ellicott City, MD

Be 82 next month.
I stopped printing long ago when I realized that when I go it is quite likely that it will be tossed out - as well as the files on my computer. I now only print what I want in my sight without having to go to the computer.
Neither my wife not any of my 5 kids ask to see anything.
So, what I'm doing is doing for sake of doing it - to have fun, satisfaction, learning and satisfying curiosity.

Maik723

Quite frankly,,,,,,,,,I'm not too concerned about what happens to my photos post life. I capture images for my own enjoyment for the here and now. It's irrelevant to me if they are enjoyed by others or end up in a dumpster after I am gone. I Enjoy them now and others enjoy them now. The morbidity of photography is a topic for eternal pessimists.

tmac Loc: Northern Kentucky

Photo books are so easy to make online now. I’m still in the cut and paste scrapbooking mode, and I love doing that. One thing I have really appreciated, along with photos I have from grandparents, etc, is a few scrapbooks. Not only are the people and events named and dated, by it is done in my grandmothers handwriting. She passed away 10 years ago.

nail binder Loc: iowa

already let my kids pick what they want the rest will trash.

rprmichela

Hi Dirtfarmer, I am new to the forum but have an opinion about what to do with all your family pictures, especially if the people in each one can be identified. How about posting them on www.familysearch.org where people are looking all the time for information about relatives (even 3- or 4-times removed?). Posting pictures is very easy and much appreciated when found by others.

davidcaley Loc: Utah

I have left requested prints with people throughout my life. My daughter has mounted prints of my photos throughout her house, some snaps of kids to large landscapes done professionally and mounted in frames. The photos are rotated and displayed properly. I feel she has preserved her choices of my legacy. My hard drives will never be explored.

JerseyT

A number of years ago my son asked what would happen to my photos after I was gone. As a result,
I started making books, mostly Blurb and MagCloud print-on-demand stuff. A lot are of specific trips,
but also particular themes and my grandson's soccer season. That way there will be a selection of
photos that I thought were important to pass down to my descendants.

billpilot Loc: Baltimore County, MD

Before I was born, my dad was a member of a photography club and they had contest that my dad submitted about 100 matted B&W pictures. These prints were kept in a big box that my sisters and I would look at upon occasion. We still have that big box and, what is amazing, is just how fantastic some of these prints are. These were all done in the 30s with a bellows type camera with no automation, what so ever. Not only that but he had a very limited number of exposures as the film was in individual sheets loaded into carries that had to be put on the camera one at a time. All of the photos were developed and printed in the darkroom that my dad built in our basement and the enlarger was made from a model T headlight enclosure. Many of these photos are absolutely works of art. Who knows, maybe someday one of my descendants may look at a few of my prints and, hopefully, they will be at least half as good as my dad's.

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

I made several family photo books via Blurb. Everyone like the photos of generations ago. They flipped through them quickly and all said thinks link nice,great job etc. Then quickly went on with what they were doing. The real joy and satisfaction was learning how to make the books, scanning etc. That's about the only heavy thinking I have to offer. I have a huge pile of old family photos an do not have a clue as to where to start with them.

jonjacobik Loc: Quincy, MA

While I'm 71 and my mother passed away more than 30 years ago, I spent some time Saturday cleaning up a portrait that sat on my parents dresser while I was growing up. It's nice to look at the 19 year old my dad fell in love with.

It's not for you to decide. No one is going to look through the 6000 images filed away on my computer, but the hundreds I've posted to Facebook will still be around when my grandchildren retire. We never got to spend a lot of time together in this world, but who knows how they will look at my photos in 2060?

clemente21

I agree that printing the photos is the best way to make them reach other generations. While I was putting together my family tree I discovered a photo of my great grandma, slouching and grabbing her head. The only photo of her, taken by someone in the 1930's and who never thought his/her photo would be seen 80+ years later. Since I put the photo in ancestry, I have received several messages from family members I did not know. All incredibly surprised at looking at this lady everyone knew, but few had seen. The same with my dad, who became 90 this weekend and looking at pictures when he was 16 yrs. old dressed as a soldier. The common denominator, they were all printed.

Last time I checked I had over 80,000 photos in my drive. I doubt someone would go over my photos. But if they are made accessible in some type of album it would have much better chances of making it through the years.

Cykdelic Loc: Now outside of Chiraq & Santa Fe, NM

Agreed. I have been executor for several family/friends who have passed and the younger people never want anything besides money and easy assets (house, car, etc).

I assume no one wants the “stuff” of our generation and I just buy, sell, or eliminate based on my own wants, needs, and whims.

geodowns Loc: Yale, Michigan

This is a great, and at 71, I have been cleaning up and organizing my photos on my computer wondering what's going to happen to them. I think the best idea from what I have read from others is to print and catalog them but with a dvd backup in the photo album of my very best work. Print and frame the very best work I have. The rest is in the photo catalog with dvd backup if someone wants to print anything. The rest is still on the hard drive and negative that no one going to bother with. Or everything might end up in the back of the closet somewhere to be found by archeologist someday in the next century wondering who was he..? And than your works end up in a museum in 2217 next to Star Trek Federation Agency in San Francisco. I'm going with this version.