As one of 4 kids, our family photos were "split up" and nobody was satisfied how it was done. I collected all of 'em up, scanned or whatever and put the collection back together and on cd. With 3 sons of my own, I've scanned in all of the early pics and provided each multiple copies of cd's so each has it all. The paper versions will go to the one who is most trustworthy of the 3.

I told this story once before on here but this is a good place to share it again. One day in Tucson, in a thrift store, I found 9 - 400 foot reels of 16mm film, the life story of a family from Connecticut that dated back to 1928. "Pa" had retired there, passed away and his estate wound up in that store. I, an old movie projectionist when younger, just happened to have my jeweler's loupe in my pocket and inspected the film. I saw that it was involving a family with a boy, a girl, and their dog. I bought the film and found that the boxes that it was sent for development to Kodak were there also so I had names and addresses to work with. I bought a projector and viewed the film. There were vacations at the beach, mom's graduation from prestigious women's college, Smith College in upstate NY. There was footage of a pre-Presidential campaign speech by Franklin Roosevelt, footage of the first Macy's Day Parade, footage of what looked like the Hindenburg blimp flying over NY City, and other stuff.

I decided to locate the people if possible and put that film back in their hands. In the event I couldn't locate the family, in the interim, I contacted Macy's about the film and they were missing that "first parade" and wanted it for their archives. The Roosevelt museum wanted the footage, etc. I agreed to make them copies but only after I had given up on locating the family which had moved to PA, MO, NY, and other places over the years with father's job which was a college professor. Not being able to focus on the girl due to name change via marriage, I concentrated on the boy. I put out feelers in genealogy forums, did direct mail, etc., and somewhere between 5 and 6 years out it paid off. I found the boy, now a lawyer in NJ and his sister, a school administrator in upstate NY and put the film in their hands, a very gratifying achievement, I must say. We need to watch out for each other and maybe go out of our way a little when we see a need to do so. Some folks won't care, others will be eternally grateful.

Many years ago we had our last family reunion with my folk and siblings. I rented a video camera for the occasion. The main attraction was when my dad showed All the slides he had taken over the years. As each slide went up on screen I video's the full picture, then zoomed in on the individuals. The best part was that the video captured all the comments: Who it was, when it was, what occasion. All the memories and documentation in the audio. Now there is a tape backup of both the full slide collection and commentary on the background information. Still have the slides, but now I also have the personal memories.