• :When:  Friday, October 14 2011 10am-11am Central Time

• :What: Veronica Reukert’s radio show on the Ideas Network of Wisconsin Public Radio. Veronica and I will be discussing the value of family photographs and how to organize / declutter them but also how to preserve the keepers. Your questions are welcome, so be sure to tune in for the call-in phone number.
• :How to listen: If you’re not fortunate enough to live in Wisconsin, you can tune in via live web streaming by visiting this page:

  http://wpr.org/webcasting/live.cfm

Friday Only

You can enter to win a FREE preservation kit, one that’s perfect for inherited ancestor photos.

Everyone who pledges to the Ideas Network during Veronica’s 1 hour show will be entered in a drawing to win one of my Family Archivist Survival Kits.

Family Archivist Survival Kit, or FASK, is the official name.  It’s four separate kits all bundled together, which is why I often refer to it as The Big Kit.  It’s got everything you need to safely store photo treasures and protect them from damage via UV light, dust, unsafe handling and the damage caused by poor quality cheap boxes. It’s also got just about all the hand tools you need to do this work. Plus a handy dandy reference guide and some lovely bonus items.

Pledge any amount between 10am and 11am Central Time (a.k.a. Chicago Time)
and you’ll be entered to win a free Family Archivist Survival Kit.

Good luck, Happy Archives Month, and I hope to chat with you about your family photos on Friday morning.

2011: Preservation Storage Solutions for:

1. Kids Art — new this year, and

2. Ancestor Photos — last year’s most popular kit

Every October,  my family and I open up our Practical Archivist Store.

Not only is it Archives Month, it also happens to be Family History Month.

New this year: Instead of shutting down the store on October 31st, we’re keeping it open until December 31st. This is exciting and terrifying to me in about equal measure.

Same as last year: All sales are pre-order. We’ll place our big orders at the last on the last day of each month (October 31, November 30 and December 31). We hope that it will be more like every two weeks, but it’s impossible to say until it actually happens.

(1) School Days Time Capsule: The hassle-free way to preserve the creations of your Pint-Sized Picassos and Wee Little Warhols

*New for 2011!

Click here to purchase online ($57.75+ S&H)

Ohmigosh, I am so exited about this year’s new kit. This giddiness might have something to do with the fact that I finally took care of the kid’s art (ahem) that was piled on top of a table in a stack that made me uncomfortable every time I saw it. So there’s a certain relief + triumph for yours truly. Go, me!

Of course, my excitement also has something to do with the materials themselves. I mean, come on! Kid. Art.

Complex collages made with epic amounts of glue. Drawings with circles for hands. Wee little pinch pots. DOUBLE RAINBOWS. You know what I mean…

Skip this paragraph if you don’t want to geek out about the music you hear in this video. Like the music? Me, too and I’m delighted the band gave me permission to use it. It’s Wisconsin’s All Tiny Creatures, the song is called “An Iris” and you can download for free here. Buy their latest album Harbors here. It’s rare for ATC to have vocals…and these are provided by Justin Vernon, also from here in Wisconsinit. Justin is often mistaken for the name of his band, Bon Iver.  One more Fun Fact that ties this whole paragraph together in a bow (of sorts): I’ve played ATC’s debut album To All Tiny Creatures for my kids as they get ready for school in the morning. It’s a lovely combination of chillax plus a kind of “just keep going” momentum. That’s their art you see in the video.

School Days Time Capsule ($57.75+ S&H)

Every School Days Time Capsule comes with the following acid-free, lignin-free metal edged boxes which are Made in the U.S.A:

• 1 Oversize flat box. One of the biggest barriers to preserving these creations is not having a big enough box to hold them. This box means no more rolling or folding the big art, which will cause damage over time.
• 1 Letter size schoolwork and small ephemera box with 10 folders. Holds letters, cards, small posters and playbills.Even class photos. Anything that fits in a standard letter sized folder.
• 1 Pinch-pot box with archival tissue. Holds ceramic 3D items of various sizes and shapes. Includes 10 oversized sheets of unbuffered archival tissue. The tissue fills in the gaps and provides cushion.

Click here to visit the online sales page for School Days Time Capsule where you can make your purchase and learn even more details about what’s in the kit.

(2) Family Archivist Survival Kit: Everything you need to start a proper family archive

*Our most popular kit in 2010 is back for 2011!

Click here to purchase online ($135+ S&H)

I designed this BIG KIT to take the hassle out of how to safely store your most beloved and treasured photographs. You can’t buy my Family Archivist Survival Kit in any stores, or even in archival supply catalogs. This kit is the biggest one I’ve ever assembled. Not only does it include all the tools you need to safely examine, label and organize your photos, it also includes the most commonly needed envelope, folder and box sizes — made only from the highest quality PAT-passed materials. Made right here in the U.S. of A.

Basically, my Family Archivist Survival Kit includes everything you need to start creating a proper family archive – using the exact same tools I use for my own family collection. (Er, except yours is more attractive because all the boxes are black and I chose tan for my oversize boxes. Let’s just say I made the fashion faux pas so you don’t have to. Oh, and I also picked the wrong size big envelopes for my own stuff. Again, I make the mistakes so you don’t have to.)

Family Archivist Survival Kit ($135 + S&H)

Each FASK comes with the following acid-free, lignin-free metal edged boxes which are Made in the U.S.A, plus plenty of acid-free, lignin-free folders and envelopes:

• Photo Rescue Kit ($25)The first kit I ever designed, and I’m as proud as I’ve ever been to sho it off. This is where you’ll find all the hand-held tools you need to properly archive family photographs. A pair of white gloves, two hard-to-find marking pencils and the wonder tool known as a microspatula. That tool comes in real handy if you ever need to rescue photographs from those horrible sticky magnetic albums, also known as The Chemical Sandwich of Dooooom.
• Loose Photo Kit ($35)Perfect for loose photos you’ve been storing in a shoebox, random drawer or bag. It’s also a great place for all those single photos sent to you in letters that you have no idea what to do with. Also a perfect storage space for photos you rescued from The Chemical Sandwich of Doom. The envelopes include plenty of space to write notes, which is a great idea because seeing photos from the past always sparks memories. The shortest pencil is better than the longest memory.
• Documents & Ephemera Kit ($30)It’s perfect for items sized around 8.5 x 11″ such as 8 x 10 photographs, magazines, unfolded letters, office records, handbills, greeting cards, magazine clippings, menus and small posters. It comes with 25 folders to help support the upright materials plus keep them protected and organized.
• Oversize Kit ($45) Spacious enough to hold 11×15 prints, or an 8×10 print mounted on an 11 x 14″ mat board.Comes with 25 PAT passed envelopes, also sized 11.5×15. I chose envelopes instead of folders to reduce the risk of loose items falling out. These envelopes have a foldable flap, but no glue — which could seep through at some future point. These envelopes include lots of space for notes.

I also have a video for the FASK. It’s from last year, but the kit itself includes all the same materials. The dates are wrong, of course — but it’s easier to SEE what’s in it and how it can be used:

Got Questions?

Call my voicemail: 608-616-0058. *It’s easiest for me if you leave an email address for replying.

Or skip the phone altogether and send me an email at practicalarchivist@gmail.com.

You know why you should follow my advice? Because I know what I’m talking about, that’s why.

Ermadene is one of my star pupils. Not only did she pay attention during our teleclasses, she followed through on my advice and moved her irreplaceable family photos away from a known hazard.

Best of all, Ermadene was kind enough to let me know via email how valuable my class was for her, which means I can let her tell you in her own words.

Prior to the class my precious ancestor and family photos, movies, videos and linen heirlooms were vulnerable to damage due to the way I was storing them.  The class taught me how to store them all properly.  This was good because two weeks ago our hot water heater flooded where some of the photos had been.  Because of Sally’s classes I had moved them to a different location and they were not damaged.  How is that for timing!!  Thank you, Sally!!

Ermadene 

You, Too Can Avoid Water Damage:

• Don’t store your family treasures near a water heater.
• Don’t store your family treasures in any basement that is prone to flooding.Don’t store your family treasures under a pipe that could burst.
• Don’t store your family treasures under an attic roof that might leak or (even worse) open up dramatically and unexpectedly when something like a tree limb comes crashing through…

In my last post, I argued that item level description can be like accidentally ending up on a freight train to crazytown –  especially if your family archive is BIG and it includes boxes n’ boxes n’ boxes of historic treasures. This is also true if you’ve been left with an alarming number of unidentified photos.

Can’t remember my argument against item level description? It’s OK. Lucky for us we’re on the internet which means you can go to it right now via the handy dandy link below.

Organize Photos Like an Archivist, Part 1: Levels of Description

Examples of “Minimal Description” Box & Folder Level

Before we get into the nitty gritty of item level description, let’s take a look at what I mean when I say “box level” and “folder level” –

Example One:

The guide to the Angela Davis Trial uses box level to describe the trial transcripts, and folder level to describe the letters of correspondence. You can do this with your family collection, too. Or even your research files. The key is to describe it at the highest level that allows you to access the items you need.

Example Two:

The William Boss finding aid describes the contents of a box without using folder numbers. They still give the number of folders for each  sub-series, which is nice because it gives you information about how much there is on that particular topic. Archivists and librarians call that extent. Numbering the folders does the same thing, of course.

Example Three:

The finding aid for the J.T. Johnson papers has an entire sub-series with exactly the sorts of photographs you’re likely to have in your collection of ancestor photos. Take a look a this list and reassure yourself that your project is totally do-able. Don’t overcomplicate things. If you don’t know what it is, just describe what you see.

Pay attention to how this kind of description gives you lots of information about the photographs WITHOUT identifying every single date, location and person.

You should create this kind of a list before you get into the details of each individual photograph (like location, date and names). More importantly, create this list before you start scanning.

Do I have your full attention? Good. Here’s the JT Johnson finding aid:

JT Johnson Papers

Series 1: Photographs, 1880s-1950s

Subseries 1A: Photographs: Personal and Family, 1880s-1950s

What the heck does “Scope and Content” mean?

Scope notes are created by the processing archivist to describe the entire collection, or series, or subseries.  You can create a scope note for any one of these levels.

Here’s a scope note that describes an entire box of items. Look it over and tell me if I’m a liar for thinking this is something you can totally do (dates are great if you know them, circa dates work, but don’t stop to figure out dates at this point):

So.

This is what I’m saying to you:

Save yourself a lot of headaches by starting your photo organizing project with the box level in mind.

But even I acknowledge that, sometimes?

Item Level Is OK.

I don’t want you to think that item level is never allowed, or that it’s always a waste of your time. Sometimes it’s perfectly appropriate.

What I really want is for you to realistically assess how much time you can put into your family photo project.

That means actually calculating how many hours you have available and blocking it out on your calendar like a class or a standing lunch date.

Concentrate this scheduled time on the exact projects that will give you the maximum payoff with the least effort. It’s a great idea to block out big chunks of time in a short period whenever possible. Consider it insurance against the curse of the half finished organizing project.

The quicker and more efficiently you move it forward, the better you’ll leave it even if you have to bail when it’s half done. Box list first. Then the nitty gritty.

You won’t regret it.

————————————–

Kid art is awesome, isn’t it? Just like photographs, my advice is to ditch the clutter and treat the keepers right. How does that work? Click here to learn more about my new School Days Time Capsule, available for a short time only. You also get to see some of my kids’ artwork. Yay!

Every year around the “Gotta Get Organized!” time of year, I give away one free information product that helps folks just like you organize photo collections. This year, I asked my email list subscribers and readers to tell me about their greatest information need. We narrowed it down to two choices, and “How to Organize Photos Like An Archivist” was the winner. The final product will be a downloadable PDF file, but I’m getting this party started by publishing Part 1 right here on the blog.

Level of Description: What Does That Mean?

Most people assume that archival items (like photographic prints, for example) are cataloged individually. One at a time. Item by item. You know, the way books are cataloged individually. Or films. Or Weird Al Yankovic albums.

Here’s the thing: Those are individual works created for a specific purpose.

You can’t treat every memo in a large modern organization’s papers the same way as you treat the final print of a feature film. Imagine creating a title for every single document created by a large union over a 50 year timespan. Or every piece of outgoing and incoming correspondence for a U.S. Senator who served multiple terms. It’s not possible based on current staffing rates.

In my experience, item level description is the exception rather than the rule. Here in the real world, the amount of time it takes to create an item level inventory is much greater than the time it takes to type a list of folder titles. In comparison? The folder (or envelope) level seems utterly do-able. Which is why I’m such a big advocate for it.

Your Options (Other Than Item Level)

Basically, there are three other choices.

Collection level, box level and folder/envelope level. Nowt I’m gonna break it down in more detail for you below with examples. Ready?

Collection Level: This is the absolute minimum level of information to describe the papers of a single person or organization. There are oodles of reasons to organize based on ownership, but since we’re talking about family photo collections I want to keep it as uncomplicated as possible. JUST KNOW THIS: If you keep track of who owned which photographs, you have given yourself a fighting chance to identify the mystery ones.

Even when you’re only describing at the collection level, you can still convey some vitally important information.

• Anne Lyons Jacobs, 2 Photograph Albums and 3 Boxes of Loose Photographs, ca. 1880-1980 Note: Album 2 is acidic “magnetic” style, photo removal is HIGH PRIORITY.

Box Level: In my book, box level is just a skoonch below minimal acceptable level. It’s a great start, don’t get me wrong. I encourage you create a box level inventory as soon as you inherit someone else’s photographs. Therefore, I’m giving you two examples: One is an example of the kind of records it’s OK to leave at the box level, the other is how you describe it before your organizing project. This box level inventory helps you prioritize your bigger organizing project so you don’t lose your mind.

• 1 Box Recipe Cards, arranged alphabetically, ca 1940-1970 (1 cardfile box)
• Mom’s hat box with photos from her high school and college years (19xx-19xx).

Folder level: Me? I like to think of this level as the sweet spot. Totally do-able, but makes finding a specific photo quick and easy. The list doesn’t duplicate the collection, but it points you to the right place.

For example, you could put all the photos from one ancestor’s school years in a single envelope, or perhaps if it’s your own college years, the photos of your graduation weekend might take up an entire envelope or folder.

Don’t know the names of everyone in the photo? Or the names of anyyone? Simply put them in an envelope titled “unknown snapshots, ca. 19xx-19xx” When you put that folder title on a list, it’s under a heading that identifies who owned the photos. It’s hierarchical, which saves you from having to repeat the same information over and over.

Box 1: Anne Lyons Jacobs Photographs

• Folder 1: Lyons Family Photos, 1880-1910
• Folder 2: Unknown snapshots, ca. 1900-1920

What About Item Level?

Listen, if you have the time and patience to create an item level inventory for all the photographs in your care, then more power to you. Go for it! But if you have a lot of  unmarked mystery photos, item level description can be like a freight train to crazy town. How can you possibly create a title for each of your unknown photos? There are ways. The Photo Detective is there to help you, of course.

My main argument is this, and I’m putting it in all caps for the scanners, not because I’m yelling or anything…

GET FOLDER LEVEL CONTROL OF EVERYTHING

(YES, EVERYTHING)

BEFORE YOU GET BOGGED DOWN IN ITEM LEVEL DESCRIPTIONS.

——————————————

Got any questions?

Insights regarding your own photo organizing struggles?

Share then in the comments, below…

LBJ Orders Pants.

Now with animation!

Adam and Jesse, the dapper charmers behind this video aren’t in the business of making history engaging and interesting,  but they did a bang-up job of it, anyway.

THEREFORE, I would like to:

1. Buy them a Wisconsin beer.
2. Nominate this video for SAA’s “I Found It! In the Archives” thingy.  Since I’m not a historical repository or a group and I”m not planning an entire event… this might be a rouge nomination. If you bother to watch the entire video, you’ll understand why that’s the only way this gem will be nominated.

If earthy talk about male body parts bothers you, I suggest you skip the video.

Put This On: LBJ Buys Pants from Put This On on Vimeo.

To understand WHY I LOVE THIS VIDEO WITH THE INTENSITY OF 10,000 SUNS, you need to know that my day job is Audio Archivist –  and the collection I’m responsible for was divested of its music decades ago.

What’s left is a huge spoken word archive with speeches, oral histories, meetings and — wait for it — hours and hours of dictation.  Recorded on utterly insane formats like dictabelt and soundscriber disc. 

Via.

I found this extremely entertaining bit of everyday history brought to life via a blog called My Mother In Law Is Sitting Between Us. True tales of cleaning out after a horder dies.

I found Sidney via an interesting (and heartbreaking) article about horders in Newsweek. Do not do this to your children, even if you’re not a horder. Grief is not the best time to be making decisions about what to toss and what to keep. Ignore the vacation photos of your hotel room — or better yet ditch them altogether — and write down the stories behind your “keeper” photos.

First of all, thank you to everyone who filled out my three question survey. Thanks Anne, Randy, Sherrie, Shirley, @stephestellar and Loyce.

The survey results here on the blog were very informative, but ohmigosh you should see the TSUNAMI of answers that came from my list.

[What? You're not on my list? You get a free e-book on how to avoid scanning blunders just for signing up. Click here to join. ]

OK. So every January I give away a free information product of some kind that helps folks organize their photographs. This year I was completely out of ideas, so I asked folks to tell me what they wanted to create.

I asked three simple questions:

1. What free photo organizing product should I create just for you?
2. What are the barriers that are keeping you from organizing your photographs?
3. What’s your ideal scenario when you think about your family photographs?

As you can imagine, when you ask open ended questions you get all kinds of responses. To be honest, there were a couple I didn’t understand. Like, at all. But those were just a tiny minority. Even so, there was…

No Consensus (…but that’s OK)

The most common answer to Question #1 was a variation on the theme of: “I don’t know.”

I wanted people to answer off the top of their heads, so that was completely OK.

There were lots of great suggestions, and you can be sure that once I’m finished creating this month’s freebie I’ll be working on new products to help you.

In fact, I’m already collaborating with a beloved expert in the field. More details when I’m allowed to divulge them. (secret ::squee!::)

Although it pains me to admit it…some of the requests were for products I’m simply not capable of creating — database templates, embedded metadata schemes, scripts. Basically anything that involves coding more complicated than html markup.

Now that I know what kind of tools your looking for, I’ll keep my eye out for existing tools as well as possible collaborations with folks who know how to code.

There were also requests for products I couldn’t possibly create before the month of January is over. That’s the deadline for this experiment, by the way.

One more comment about the survey responses…

When it came to describing the things that were holding you back, ya’ll had no problem breaking it down for me. None. You let me know, in painful detail, your fears and concerns about The Big Photo Project. I feel your pain, my friends.

As I compiled your responses, it occurred to me — more than once — that this is not a barrier. Or at least it’s not a barrier if you went to grad school for archives and have worked as an archivist since the 1990s. In other words, I know how to get you past some of these barriers. So that’s one of your options, right there.

Two Great Choices — Please Help Me Choose Which One To Create

The good news is that there are two fabulous free information products I can just for you, within the January 2011 time frame. I’m talking about them in terms of Column A and Column B because it evokes midcentury Chinese American restaurant menus. The kind with photographs of the food. (LOVE!)

Column A: How Archivists Arrange and Describe Family Photograph Collections

Should I organize everything by date? Event? Name?

While it’s true I can’t answer that question for any collection I haven’t seen — I can show you how archivists approach large photo collections. I can deconstruct archival Finding Aids and show you exactly how we describe collections at the folder or box level. When we don’t know who the people are, we give it our best educated guess and move on. Sometimes we admit we don’t know who it is, and it goes on the list as [unknown, circa 1880].

If you have only limited time to organize a large number of photos, this is what you should do first. Even if you never come back to do more, you will have done a great service to your family history.

For those who insist on item level control, I will list a number of systems I’ve seen that work — from simple docs to complicated databases.

Column B: 5 Practical Hacks to Defeat the Barriers That Are Keeping You From Organizing Your Photos

I tally the five most common barriers named in the survey results. Then I provide practical do-able tips that will help you get past the stuck.

Please Vote!

It would break my heart if I spent hours and hours creating something that you don’t want. It would also break my heart a little if I created something that you aren’t going to use. When you make your choice, consider which product you are more likely to put into action straight away.

Vote below via the comments section.

Please Note: Comments are updated *only* in the evenings and during my lunch break. Please do not panic when it’s not updated right away. All comments will be posted. All votes will be counted! (Voting ends Friday January 21st –  Noon Chicago Time.)

Thanks!!

* Is “organize photos” on your list of things to do in 2011?

* Are you ready to finally tackle those photos you inherited?

I could really use your help. I want to give away a free photo organizing product in January, 2011 — but I’m completely stuck on what I should create. That’s where you come in! Below is an easy peasy 3 question survey. You can email me your answers, or post them right here in the comments. Then I will create a free information product based on your Greatest Information Need.

If this is your first time here, you might not know what a hopeless geek I am about big photo projects. Especially pre-digital photographs. The ones that have been sitting in boxes or drawers for ages.

My motto about photo organizing is: “Do It Once and Be Done with It.”

Chances are you’re not adding many printed photos to those boxes anymore. That’s what we archivists call a “closed” collection. Few or no additions to come. Whip it into shape now and you won’t have to worry about them ever again. Once the chaos is organized, your scanning project won’t be such a nightmare. You’ll have free memory triggers right at your fingertips, any time you want them. Imagine how much easier that will make your memoir-writing project.

I’m also fond of saying: “Ditch your photo clutter and treat the keepers right.”

Alhough it’s unlikely you have too many photos of great-grandma Esther, if you’re like most of us you’ve kept waaaay too many of the photos you took in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. I don’t want to freak you out or anything, but that’s simply too many photos. Your great grandchildren don’t want to see let alone store all of your vacation shots. On the other hand? I’m sure they would love to have some photos of you. Why not make it as easy as possible for them to find the keepers?

Another one of my favorite sayings is credited as a Chinese proverb, but that’s all I know about its origin: “The shortest pencil is better than the longest memory.” If you don’t identify your photographs, they are destined to become what we call “orphans” — which means nobody knows anymore who the people are. Those are the photos that end up at flea markets, by the way. This saying also applies to the stories behind your favorite photos. Write those down and they can be enjoyed by many generations to come. 

All year round, I teach folks just like you how to organize, preserve and share their photo treasures. In January, I like to help out everyone who is adding “Organize Photos” to their To Do List (again).

Please do me a quick favor and leave your answers in the comments section below. Or — if you prefer — you can send your answers to me in an email:  practicalarchivist+survey@gmail.com

Many thanks for your help, and please tell your friends!

-Sally J.

P.S. I’ll leave the survey up through next Tuesday. Then  I’ll tally the results and create a free giveaway PDF (from scratch!) based on your Greatest Information Need. When the PDF is available later this month, I’ll announce it here on the blog. There will be a link to get your free download. Don’t think you’ll remember to come back but still want the freebie? My advice is to sign up for my Practical Archivist list, which you can do here.

Easy Peasy 3 Question Survey

Question #1: With regards to organizing your pre-digital era photographs, what free information product would you love for me to create JUST for you?

Question #2: What is your biggest fear or frustration when it comes to organizing these family photos?

Question #3: And, finally — What is your ideal *perfect* outcome for these photographs?

Thomas MacEntee and I had a blast today on our Help for the Accidental Archivist web chat. We helped lots of non-archivists with their questions about how to take care of family treasures.  You can read a transcript of entire chat here -> Accidental Archivist Web Chat 2010.

Wanna download a free recording of our Accidental Archivist Phone Chat?

Click here to start the download. Keep  in mind that this is an 18.4 MB mp3 file so it might take a spell for it to finish downloading. I’m only leaving this recording up for about one week, grab your copy now.

I’m adding a second event, this time via telephone.

As requested, this free class is not during a week day for all you Accidental Archivists who work 9-5 M-F and couldn’t make it to today’s web chat.

• Saturday, October 30th
• 3pm – 4pm Central Time
• Phone Number: 1-605-475-6333
• Access Code: 842345
• Seats available: 150
• NOTE: Regular long distance charges apply even though I’m not charging any tuition fees for this class. You can try to call in using a service like Skype, but I’ve had students who could not get connected this way. Fair warning. Of course if you have cell phone minutes you never use, it’s like a free call.

Did you become the family archivist when you inherited family photo treasures? Then you’re an Accidental Archivist!

*WHAT: 60 minute WebChat, open Q&A format, with Sally J, The Practical Archivist. Ask any questions you have about how to organize, preserve, and share your family photo treasures.

*WHEN: Friday, October 29th, Noon-1pm Central U.S. Time (aka Chicago Time)

*WHERE: The Practical Archivist’s Website, more specifically ->

http://practicalarchivist.com/accidentalarchivist2010/

*HOW: No pre-registration required. No software downloads required. Just show up at the web address above at the scheduled time. If you have a pressing questions, please ask it as soon as possible when you join us. I will answer questions one at a time, as they come in. If you don’t have a specific question, feel free to just say “hello” as you join us.

P.S. Do me a favor, will you? If you know someone who’s inherited one-of-a-kind family photos, please send them a link to this page. Thanks!