Scrapbooks in the Digital Age
- Leslie Ryan
- May 15
- 2 min read
Are you a scrapbooker? Was your mom a scrapbooker? Do people still keep scrapbooks in the Digital Age? We were lucky to inherit a 4" thick scrapbook detailing all of my mother's friends, her high school glory days, her vacations, and her accomplishments through the days until she got married. She had a lot of accomplishments after that, but the documentation stopped. Which makes me suspicious that her mother was probably the one keeping the book! We never knew of the existence of this book until after she had passed, and were sorry we never got to share these memories with her.
There were some wonderful things in that scrapbook, and there were also a number of things that meant nothing to us. It was so large, it was not easily passed around and shared with the grandkids. So, what to do?
We took pictures of the items that were glued down (eek!) or were too big to scan. These modern phones have wonderful photo editing tools allowing us to crop, fix the color, rotate, and copy without having to buy expensive photo editing tools for our computers.
If you have a scanner you might be able to remove pages to lay flat on the scanning bed. If you want to maintain the structure of the book, you should NEVER flatten the book and risk breaking the spine! Here is a link to the National Archives about preserving these old family treasures: https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2015/winter/scrapbooks.html
You could also convert that musty old scrapbook into a digital scrapbook that you can easily share and update with family and friends! Here is what is advertised to be a free program with lots of templates and instruction videos for your consideration:
This one claims to be able to "translate" uploaded PDF's. Worth a look?
They also claim to have family tree templates!
To find the product that is right for you, just do an internet search for "Digital Scrapbooking" and check out some reviews for yourself!
Did anyone else take advantage of the FamilyTreeDNA mtDNA test Mother's Day sale? My kit came right away, and I was glad to see it was a swab and not a tube spitting party. Keep your eyes open for a Father's Day sales, especially if you want to test Y-DNA. Those can be pricey!
How's your research going? Still having fun? I hope so! If not, let me know, maybe we can help. Our offer of a no obligation free tree evaluation is available!
Thanks to my old and new subscribers for coming by again!
Regards,
Leslie Ryan
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No copyright infringement is intended.
