Working with Old Family Photos

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One of the most exciting parts of family history is working with old family photos. To have images from well over 100 years ago is a real blessing, especially as we learn more about the lives of those in the pictures.

Once upon a time I had a career in what was known as photofinishing — I made pictures. Through that time in my life I learned a lot about pictures and how to improve them. Those skills are bearing fruit at this time in my life as I work to do what I can with less-than-perfect pictures of the past. This post is all about tips for doing this on your own.

Below is an image of William and Ruth Westover — an outstanding old image that I figure dates from the 1890s (if anyone knows the actual story of this photo, please share). As you can see, this wonderful image is old, faded and not-so-great with the details:

williamruth

There are limitations to what can be done to old pictures. (And there should be limitations of what SHOULD be done to old pictures, more on that in a minute). But here is a “corrected” version of the same image:

williamruth2

Quite a difference, eh?

Such are the wonders of modern software. But before you go out and buy a software program and start hacking away at your old photos there are some things — rules, even — that you should be aware of before you begin:

Intent
Photographers are artists just like anyone else that creates. In the photo above a professional took great care to create a lasting image using all his skills and the technology of the time. As restorers of the image we need to respect the photographers intent. One of the things I see over and over again on social media is the application of a lot of software-edited images that completely destroy the intent of the original photographer. Things like color filters, masking with other images and weird visual effects are added by some that radically changes an image and makes it more or less than the original photographer intended.

A simple rule of thumb is this: just don’t. You do NOT have to use every tool in the software box on an image.

Our intent as restorers has to be centered in getting as much out of an image as we can without destroying the image in the process.

Focus on Faces
The detail we’re capable of achieving now through software and screen-viewing of old images is amazing. But the work of restoration must focus on faces — we want to see more of the people. Everything else is secondary. In this image above the restoration work on the faces just happened to reveal more detail about their clothing — which is a wonderful, happy by product. But the clothing is not our focus — people is what this work is all about.

Work from Copies
Years ago if we wanted to mess with an image we had to have special equipment that would allow us to make copies of an old image. Then we would have to work with the copy. That process meant a degradation of the image sharpness because a copy manually produced was never as sharp as the original.

Digital technology changes all of that.

Many of the images in our photo archives are small — some as small as 1-inch square. Scanning them and working with them on a screen gives us a chance to see the details in that image we never could from the small original. In many cases, if an image is strong in focus and contrast, we can actually improve upon its sharpness.

Always keep a clean and organized file of your originals. And work strictly from your copies.

Understand Screen and Print Resolution
We take more pictures than ever but how we view and share them has changed radically. Most images are now seen on a screen, whether it is large like on a high definition television or small, such as on a phone. While in some cases we want an actual print of an image that is more the exception than the rule any more. Regardless, when working with images you have to be aware of both screen resolution and print resolution and what that means.

Screen resolution is what a picture looks like on any kind of screen. Generally, images do not need huge resolution to be viewable on screens large and small. In those images above I can project them on a screen thirty feet high and they will still look good.

But printing is another story.

I have not seen the original print the scan from above was made from but I would guess it to be roughly 3 by 5 inches max in its original state. That original size — and the method by which the scan of that image above was made — dictates what kind of print I can make from it. For as great as that image looks on a screen it won’t make an acceptable print beyond maybe a 5×7. And that is because the print resolution (dots per inch) is relatively low.

Understanding these distinctions is important in working with images.

As you work in software programs you quickly learn that images are resource intensive — meaning that the higher the resolution of an image the bigger the file size is. That requires a computer with greater storage space, a processor with greater computing power and more time with which to work with an image. Not everyone has the same capacity with their computers and most will work within the framework of what they have — and that affects outcomes when it comes to restoring old pictures.

Group According to Source
I keep the photos I collect in groups according to where they came from. It is important to do that because “Grandpa’s Photos” can yield better clues to who people are than “Old Family Photos”. If Grandpa had the images in his collection chances are greater of discovering details in a journal that correspond with a person or an event. Where a picture comes from should be noted because as time passes it will give information to future researchers looking for answers.

Now, these are general rules. There are many other rules as it relates to restoring photos that are much more technical in nature. And we’ll get into that in another post.

Are You Giving All Your Family History Just to Facebook?

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Earlier this evening I was on Facebook and noticed that my cousin’s daughter was soon to open her mission call. They had set it up to open the letter at a set time to broadcast it via Periscope, a live video app that is tied to Twitter.

What a world we live in now, eh? Here I sat in my office in rural Northern Utah watching a live event on my phone that was taking place in Colorado.

I was amazed to see that I wasn’t the only person to join in the festivities in this way — there were dozens of people from all over the place who “tuned in” to see this little moment of family history.

Oh yeah….that’s what that was: family history.

We make history every day. And most of us dump much of what we do every day on Facebook.

I can go to my Facebook page every day and see what family in California are doing today. I see the travels of my friends from across the world. I look at their pictures and hear of their experiences.

I could probably tell you more about the weather in Australia than in my own backyard because I have a friend there who posts weather information every day. Dumb as that sounds, I actually have come to enjoy seeing what is happening half a world away down under every day.

I’m not ashamed to say that I’m an Internet pioneer. My first web efforts date back to the early 1990s.

But I’m also in my fifties — and I’m just not as tied socially to all things online like my kids.

Yes, I use Facebook but not like they do. I rarely take pictures of my food, I never post selfies and Facebook is about as far as I go. Well, okay, I look in on Twitter maybe once a month.

But my kids are daily users not only of Facebook but also Instagram and SnapChat and Vine and YouTube and all manner of other types of social sites.

In fact, they are like so many of their peers — they spend so much face time with a screen they sometimes don’t know how to handle face time with a person.

What does all this have to do with family history?

Just as the way we interact with each other has changed so too has the way we archive our own history. Not many keep private journals any more. Few have actual hold-in-your-hand pictures. Everything is online and much of it is embedded in social media such as Facebook.

In many ways, it’s wonderful. My mother-in-law interacting on an almost daily basis with my children thrills me. Their sharing one-on-one and instantly with others is great. In this way, even at a distance, more family can get to know each other in real time. We are indeed in a blessed time.

But there is a downside to all this convenience and all this data that is instantly shared: it is rarely, if ever archived and it is never organized.

You can see it now but can you find it later? And will you even try?

The fact that you can instantly update the world from your phone while you are on the go conditions you to only deal with your data in that way. But before long it is gone — long replaced by whatever came next, never to be seen again.

I was teaching at a Family History Fair a few months back and a young person told me that all her video and images were always there and available to her — instantly retrievable. I had her pull out her phone and attempt to bring back a picture from just last summer. She couldn’t do it.

In the moment — social media is great. But getting a record of it all that you can use for family history isn’t exactly easy.

Now, there are tools. You can actually order books of your Facebook feed. There are web services out there, if you want to pay for them, that can help you archive your social media activity. And maybe indeed, 150 years from now, our 22nd century family can look back on it all through the magic of their technology. Will that be how family history is done?

I hope you don’t leave all your family history in the hands of Facebook. I hope you gather your own stuff, organize it and share your story in your own words. It is okay — in fact, probably preferable — that you use all available technology. If history is any indicator technology will advance to present it in another way anyway.

Think about it. 100 years ago all records were kept on paper, most of it handwritten. At some point it was stored for a long time and then retrieved to be photographed and put on microfilm. Now those microfilms have been digitized — and we view what was originally on paper here on a screen. Chances are these very words 150 years from now will be presented differently than we see them now.

So don’t get hung up on the technology. Get hung up instead on your content. It is your story. Do you want it presented to your future family by the likes of Facebook? Or would you rather present it yourself?

Family History Goals for 2016

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A few weeks back I asked the question — What do we want to accomplish in 2016 with Westover Family History?

What began as an effort about a year ago to just share our family history in a different way has morphed into an improved effort with our family history. We’re reaching out, finding new family members and learning things we never imagined. It has been rewarding and humbling. And we want to keep that rolling. After interacting with a few here are our ambitious plans for 2016:

Tell five more stories
We produced five videos in 2015 designed to tell the stories of some of our common ancestors. We did this in an attempt to engage many of our younger family members who are of the Internet generations. And it worked. It has been thrilling to hear from some of my cousins as young as 8 years old who have engaged in these videos as their first efforts in family history. This year we would like to continue that effort by featuring these five family members in video: Ann Findley Westover, William Reeves Riggs Jr., Arnold Westover, Albert Smith Sr. and William Ruthvin Westover. We invite family members anywhere to lend their information and talents to these projects. We’re looking for script writers, images, film or audio files if they exist and, of course, narrators.

Build awareness of and with Family Search
As we continue to engage in connecting family we are shocked to see how few are aware of and make use of the ever changing resource that is FamilySearch.org. Our family history is just exploding on Family Search. This dynamic resource is where it all happens — where family history information is not only archived but it is tied specifically to the temple work that needs to be done. We feel stronger than ever a need for all of our family everywhere to embrace FamilySearch.org and make frequent use of it and we will work to promote what it offers and explain how to use it.

Take more family names to the Temple
Changing features at FamilySearch.org now allow us to share family names that are ready to take to the temple. We plan to make active use of those features by reaching out to family members who regularly participate in temple work. We will use this site to communicate those needs and coordinate efforts to move that work forward.

Help extended family come online
As we have tried to reach out online through the various branches of the family we have had some ask about building resources similar to this site for others. The first of these is already underway and we will be launching BegichFamilyHistory.org very soon. We’re very excited to see family members rally to the cause like this because so much more can be accomplished if we work together and pool our information. We’re pleased and happy to do this and can envision a time when the Riggs or the Quilters or the Gillens or the Weltys will have their own dedicated repository online for family resources like this one.

Find something new in someone we already know
Thanks to our grandparents and those of their generation we have many names we have known about for decades. But some we know more about that others. While we have been able to find and share the stories of some, like Jonas Westover of old, there are others where we have only a few names and dates. We announced on this site more than a year ago a plan to visit some of the old Westover stomping grounds of New England. That trip is happening and I’m excited for it. We might even have some folks out there coming with us to join in the adventure. Like this site, we have some ambitious goals for this trip and I don’t even know if we can accomplish this. But we want to find something new about people we already know about. Wouldn’t it be great, for example, if we could find the burial place of Alexander Westover or learn more about his brief life? We’re going to Ohio with that purpose in mind. Wouldn’t it be awesome to uncover the trail that Amos and Ruth Westover followed from Canada to Ohio? What more can we learn of Jonas and Jonas, Jr. in the early days of America? We don’t mind covering some ground that has been covered before — if we can find something new along the way. We’re going to really try.

These are all ambitious targets. But a year from now I’d like to look back at WestoverFamilyHistory.org and see something different than what we see now. I welcome your thoughts, ideas and participation along the way.

Creating the Family History of the Future

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Years ago we began a tradition in our family. Between Christmas and New Year I gather all the images and videos from each of the devices in the house and produce a family video that all gather to watch as part of our New Year’s Eve activities. It was never intended to be part of the family record but as we look back at these productions they have become an obvious source of remembering things and a happy accident of family history.

I just completed this year’s video and it tallies more than 50-minutes. I won’t burden you with the whole thing but will share this portion of the video that celebrates the birth of a new grandson and the impact these boys have been on my family this past year:

We customarily start these videos with a brief pictorial overview of the world — we will grab images from news sources and create a backdrop of what was going on in the world while we went through the events of our year. I think this is important for putting some things in context down the road. Then we get into the major events and activities of the year. It might include travel and vacations but many years, like this past year, we can’t do those kinds of things because of other events.

It doesn’t matter what happens.

What matters is that we tell the big stories. This year the stories were of losing my mother, celebrating the graduation of a daughter from high school, welcoming a new grandson and making a move — a huge year and a big story to tell. While I do “narrate” at parts this video is more about my children and their part in it all and I try to use as much of “their stuff” as I can.

My kids are all Millennials — they have grown up with the Internet and screens and devices and they are fluent in the savvy uses of video and images. They take thousands of images. Our videos are primarily their pictures and in the case of this video above I’m particularly proud of their technical work because the very best pictures of my grandsons have been taken by my children, not by me.

It’s now been 8 years since we began this tradition and our videos have become better over time. They aren’t intended for a general audience because frequently they include references to family culture or even inside jokes that would just take too long to understand. And, to be honest, we have pictures that include Christmas morning hair and every day chaos that my wife and children would rather not the world at large see. Later generations of family seeing this stuff after we’re gone is ok, I suppose.

But none of this is lost on me. These slideshows are part of the family history we will pass down. It is a tradition in keeping family records that many would enjoy if they would invest the time. It takes me the better part of a day to produce these videos. I consider it now sacred time.

Family History in a New Year

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We are at that time of the year where we look both backward and forward.

As I contemplate our efforts here I feel a mixture of both pride and frustration. 2015 was a year when I finally did something new with my family history. We started this little website last January. We have created new content in an effort to reach other members of our family and they have responded. It is a good start.

But I’m frustrated at how life gets in the way of moving forward. For all that was accomplished last year there were areas where we missed our target. There remains a lot of work to do and not enough hands, time or resources to move the work along as quickly as it could.

So, as with so many other things in life at this time of the year, we have reached a point of reflection and resolution. We take inventory of what has been accomplished and make fresh plans for what we can do in the months ahead.

For me it starts with Roots Tech, which comes along the first week of February. I have reviewed the many classes and resources available at that event to try to grasp what is new and coming in Family History and to learn where I can learn this year in attending the event.

Just doing that rejuvenates me. But for as full of light as I feel in reviewing that material and for as much as I know what is in my head about our Family History and the work that must be done I want to refrain from saying much more and invite any of you out there to join me in setting some goals for 2016 for our family history and family temple work.

We should have individual pursuits. And we should have collective projects that better coordinate the overall family effort.

I want to pause for a week or so to give folks a chance to respond. I know we’re all busy and we hesitate to commit to time for yet another important priority in life. What I’m asking for here isn’t a large scale commitment — what I’m asking for is feedback.

What do we want to accomplish in 2016?

Already we have some ambitious plans. We are moving forward with a trip to New England next fall — a trip that will land between September 16th and October 8th — to visit places uncovered in our family history in Ohio, New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut. What will we find? What can we find? We just don’t know yet.

But what else is there? What more can we do?

That’s what I would like you to contemplate with me over the next week or so. By the time the calendar rolls over into the new year I’d like to list some comprehensive goals for 2016 for this site. And I do this because I want to be held accountable. A year from now I want to be able to see a record of what we set out to do and to account for whether or not we did it.

We want to share more, engage more, learn more and accomplish more. In my mind, some sort of temple connection must now be made. We must find a way to communicate a plan whereby needed temple work can be identified and some how passed out to the family members out there that can help accomplish it.

That is, after all, what this is all about.

But there is more. We need to learn new stories. We need to find ways to reach more family members and work to engage them with our ancestry.

Please share your thoughts and ideas. Again, I’m not asking for commitments. I’m asking for your ideas, thoughts and wishes as it relates to Family History.

Email me at jeff@westoverfamilyhistory.org this week. Let’s set some goals for the new year together.