Louise's Lost Files - Scanning Best Practices for Photographs

You've probably heard me (and others) talk about this before. When scanning photographs, you should scan them at the highest resolution and save them as Tiff files. Scanning at highest resolutions will allow you to have the crispest and most detailed digital image of your photograph. Oftentimes, when you zoom in on a photograph scanned at a high resolution, you can see more detail then you can see with your eye. This has come in handy many times when I have tried to identified a person or place in a photograph or tried to estimate when the photograph was taken.

Although JPEG is the standard format for saving images to your digital camera, hard drive, and email, it is a good idea to save your scanned photograph files as TIFF rather than JPEG because TIFF files do not lose resolution each time you open, close, and save a file. You can think of a JPEG file as a kind of compressed file which loses resolution each time it is used.

When to Save as JPEG? 
If you are planning to upload your photographs to your family tree software or online tree, or share with family members via email or a website, then you can save copies of each photograph in the JPEG format. When I scan photographs, I save each scanned photograph as a TIFF file and then I make a copy and save it in a JPEG format. I have two folders on my hard drive - one for my TIFF files and one for my JPEG files.

How to Save as Both JPEG and TIFF files? 
This process can be done several different ways:

1. You save each scanned photograph as a TIFF file, then save as JPEG file directly in your scanning software
2. You save each scanned photograph as a TIFF file, then batch save each one as a JPEG in your photo software
3. You save each scanned photograph as a TIFF file, open each photo up individually and save a copy as a JPEG file

I have the option of all 3 listed above at my fingertips. My scanning software holds all my scanned images in a queue until I'm ready to save them. Then I select the images I want to save, give them all the same name, for example, "Benson Photos," and select what file format I want to save them in. I save all my files as TIFFs first. My scanning software will append a numerical value at the end of each file name as it saves them. I will then go through each scanned image, identify the person or persons in the photograph and name accordingly.

Because I usually rename my scanned photographs, I create JPEG copies using the number 2 option above: I open my photo software called XNView (Windows based) and I select batch process to save all of my photos as JPEGs. It will then make a copy of all of the photos I have selected and save them as JPEGs. This is a very handy tool to have at your fingertips.

My next post will discuss how I name my photos and identify the subjects in each photo.

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Photo: This is a photo of the Canon LiDe 110 scanner downloaded from the Canon.com website. This is my 2nd iteration of this scanner that I have had for 10 years now. It fits nicely in a backpack or briefcase and is fast and easy to work with. The scanning software I use with it is called MP Navigator EX.

Louise's Lost Files - Certificate of Marriage

This is part of my Louise's Lost Files Series in which I share with my readers some of the items I am inventorying, scanning and posting that came from my great-grandmother, Louise Lasiter's house in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

The first part I tackled were two small drawers of paperwork belonging to my great-grandmother. They contained basic household mail items such as bank statements, bills, and tax statements. Intermingled in these mundane household items, however, were a few items of genealogical significance including their original Certificate of Marriage shown below.

Marriage Certificate Louise Benson and James Putman Lasiter, from the personal collection of Ginger R. Smith

It says:

This Certifies

that on the Second day of December in the year of our Lord 1931,

J. Putman Lasiter and Louise Benson 

were by me united in Marriage 

at Tulsa, Oklahoma 

according to the Ordinance of God and Laws of the State of Oklahoma.

Witnesses: Udrah Kaemmerling and Conrad H. Grabradshi [sp?]

Otto LeRoy Curl, Ph.D., D.D.

Pastor University Methodist Episcopal Church

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A little bit about the physical condition of the marriage certificate:

It is a tri-fold and has a piece of braided cord punched through one seam so that when it's folded in 3, it can be tied on the outside. There is also an outer cover which you can kind of see in the scan if you look closely at the bottom. 

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A little bit about my great-grandparents: 

Louise Benson was 19 years old when she married James Putman "Put" Lasiter on December 2nd, 1931. She had been living with her family in Newby, Oklahoma in April of 1930 when the census was taken. According to the census, she was still attending school, so she must have been attending a junior college of some sort because she graduated from Spiro High School in 1929. 

An interesting tidbit of information was that Louise was pregnant with her first child Barbara when she married Put. And yes, I assure you that her first child was Put's. My grandmother and her sister Barb could have been twins, their likeness was so similar. 

James Putman "Put" Lasiter was 23 years old when he married Louise. He was living in Fort Smith, Arkansas with his parents when the census was taken in 1930. According to the census report, he was also attending school. 

I wish I knew how my great-grandparents met with one living in OK and the other living in AR about two hours away. Maybe I will find some clues in the rest of the boxes? In addition to this marriage certificate, I found their original marriage license and I also found a certified copy of the marriage license which was obtained in 1943. 

I wonder what the certified copy was required for? 

Why would someone need a certified copy of a marriage license 12 years after they were married?

They didn't buy their house until 1950, so it could not have been for a mortgage. Hmmm...interesting. 

Louise's Lost Files - Scanning Best Practices for Documents

If you have been participating in Thomas McEntee's Genealogy Do-Over, then you know that one of this week's goals was to digitize your photos and documents. Thomas gave a great overview of scanning best practices for photographs. I had a few of my own ideas to add regarding the scanning of documents - especially pertaining to Louise's Lost Files - my great-grandmother's files I've been working on for weeks. I've outlined my best practices below. How do you scan your documents?

Last week I went through some of the financial records of the last two years of my great-grandmother's life that I found in the two drawer small file box. I also found in this box all of the documents pertaining to my great-grandmother's house - the mortgage note, the deed, and related insurance papers. In order to share these documents with my readers and to further preserve them, I decided to scan them into my computer.

My scanning software offers several options:

• black and white document
• black and white photograph
• color document
• color photograph

Deciding on a scanning method depends on what I want to do with my scan. If I want to scan an exact copy of the document as it looks to MY eye, then I probably want to scan in color in order to preserve the appearance of the aged and faded paper. However, this scanned copy does not make for a very good template to print copies from. Printing copies with a colored background, even if it is off white, will use up a lot of your ink. So it is a good idea to also scan each item in black and white, especially if you ever plan to print copies of it.

This is the deed of trust scanned in color. If I were to print from these scans, the printer would print a beige color to the entire page. Although this scan is nice because it represents the true color and original appearance of the document, it does not make for a good copy to print from. Also, the top image was scanned as a color document and the bottom image was scanned as a color photograph. The photograph picked up the text from the other side of the page which is not good.

The other option is document versus photograph. Scanning as a photograph would also help to preserve the original appearance of the aged paper, however, it will pick up a lot more of the paper's blips and blemishes, including bleed through of text from the other side. You can reduce the amount of bleed through by placing a piece of black card stock on top of the paper being scanned. Or you can scan as a document and get a much clearer and crisp scan. Sometimes the typed text might not show up as dark with the document setting as it would with the photograph setting, but this can be adjusted in your graphics program using your brightness, contrast, and gamma controls.

On the left is a document scanned as a black and white document - as you can see the text is pretty light. The one on the right is the same scan with gamma correction applied - now the text is much darker. Click the image to view a larger image. 

Regardless of the scanning option you decide on, you should always check your scans to make sure everything shows up nicely - especially anything that was written in pencil.

Also, with regard to resolution, always scan in either 300 or 600 dpi resolution. To me, the biggest advantage is readability. If I need to zoom in to a document in order to decipher its handwriting, I can do so easily with a 300 or 600 dpi scan and still see a clear and crisp image. If I zoomed in on an image that was scanned at 100 dpi resolution, the image would be grainy and the handwriting or text unreadable.

It is best to save your images in both JPG and TIF files types. The TIF files types can be used for preservation purposes and as in the example above, TIF files can be easily zoomed and still maintain their clarity of text and handwriting. Saving images in JPG files is also a good idea, especially if you plan to publish the images on the web, on your online tree, or email to cousins. Most photo and document upload services have a maximum file upload size that can only be adhered to in a JPG format. My scanning software also allows me to save my images into either individual or multiple page PDF files. I often use this to my advantage: PDFs can be easily emailed to cousins, they offer a nice way to keep multiple pages of the same document together, and the text is often searchable (mine is!).

How do you scan your documents and does it differ from scanning photographs?

Louise's Lost Files - Cancelled Checks

This is part of my Louise's Lost Files Series in which I share with my readers some of the items I am inventorying, scanning and posting that came from my great-grandmother, Louise Lasiter's house in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

Last week I sifted through the two small drawers of paperwork belonging to my great-grandmother. They contained basic household mail items such as bank statements, bills, and tax statements. Almost everything was in their original envelops. The bank statements were from the two years prior to her death: 1995-1997. Inside the envelops containing the bank statements were also her cancelled checks. Among the cancelled checks I found this one:

It was addressed to me. My great-grandmother had sent me this check in 1995 when I was in my 2nd year of college in Burlington, Vermont. It was very nice of her to remember me.

This check is significant not only because it had been addressed to me, but also because it contains valuable genealogical information.

• It contains my great-grandmother's address
• It has my great-grandmother's Signature on it
• It has my name on it
• It has my signature on the back of the check along with the name of the bank I used in Burlington, VT (and the date it was cashed by me)
• It also has the name of the bank my great-grandmother used

I think the signatures are the big things that interest most genealogists. How many of your ancestors' signatures do you have?

The rest of the genealogically relevant information gleaned from this cancelled check ties in to the lives of both myself and my great-grandmother. It goes beyond just the genealogical facts that we are first interested in. It helps to build a picture of what life was like for those involved. 

So my tip of the day is, don't throw away things just because they don't tell you when someone was born, died, or married. Some day, this document might be the one piece of evidence you need to prove something! 

Louise's Lost Files - Week 1 - The Inventory Process

This is the first of my posts outlining the inventorying process of my great-grandmother, Louise Lasiter's files. Louise Benson Lasiter was born January 1st, 1912 in Avant, Osage Co., Oklahoma and died December 27th, 1997 in Fort Smith, Arkansas. I came into possession of some of her files and photos last December while visiting Fort Smith. I have outlined the inventory process I am using while going through her files below:

For my first project, I tackled the two-drawer paper box (the smallest of the 3 boxes).

It wasn't that full and the items inside were mostly papers (and not photographs). All of these papers were folded and some were even enclosed in their original envelops.

I started by pulling one stack of papers out of the first drawer.

I looked at each item, one at a time, taking it out of its envelop.

I wrote down what the item was, who it pertained to, and the date in my lined notebook.

I then put the item back into its original envelop, indicating on my sheet if it came in an original envelop.

Once I filled up one page of my notebook, I bundled those items on the first page and put a rubber band around them; then I put a sticky note on the first item with the number corresponding with the notebook page.

If I found something interesting in the stack, I put a sticky note on the item so that it sticks out of the pile. I also put a sticky note on the first item of the stack to indicate there is something of relevance within the pile. I also put a big star beside the item in the inventory list

In this bunch of papers, I found several documents of interest - the marriage certificate of my great-grandparents, the deed to their house, an old deed to some cattle that was sold in the 1800s, and my great-grandmother's cancelled checks. I thought these items were significant, so I put a star beside their entries in my inventory list. 

When I finished going through the two file drawers, I had accumulated four bundles. I then placed the banded bundles into a numbered oversized photo box.

Later, when I'm ready to start writing about and sharing these documents, all I have to do is consult my inventory list to see what bundle it was placed in, then pull that bundle out of the photo box and retrieve the document. 

Louise's Lost Files - Taking Stock

I love going through boxes of "old stuff" as much as any other genealogist out there. And I could spend hours doing so, especially if I am looking for that elusive brickwall-busting document or photo. However, I am also aware of the importance of being able to go back and locate an item I thought was interesting without having to rummage through the entire box's contents all over again. This is why I have decided to inventory and subsequently preserve, or in more practical terms "file" these items away for easy access and with little risk of degradation or damage. 

Although I was trained in the arrangement and description of archival material while obtaining my Library of Science Master's Degree, I'm not going to go THAT FAR. I do not intend to preserve these materials for the next 150 years. Let the actual archives take care of that when I'm gone (because of course I'm going to donate ALL of my genealogical materials to the Archives before I die!) What I do intend to do, however, is to inventory the boxes' contents, organize (and describe) the materials, and arrange them into a manner in which they can be retrieved and shared as necessary. 

There is one aspect of training that I will adhere to called RESPECT des FONDS. You may recognize the two main components of this pricinple: PROVENANCE and ORIGINAL ORDER.[1] 

1. PROVENANCE: refers to the individual, family, or organization that created items in a collection
2. ORIGINAL ORDER: refers to the order in which items in a collection were organized by their creator

An example of why this is important was evident in some of the photos I quickly looked through prior to starting the inventory process... There was a small box about 3x5 that contained photos of my great-grandmother and her school friends, her siblings, her aunts and uncles. Some of the photos had writing on them. The photos of my great-grandmother were labeled "Louise" because that was her name. The photos of my great-grandmother and her mother were labeled "Me and Louise." Do you know what this box of photos was, but more importantly, who they belonged to? They belonged to my 2nd great-grandmother, Eva Benson! I mean it's pretty exciting to have photos of my 2nd great-grandparents, but even more exciting that my great-grandmother had a little something that was her mother's. Her mother did not live with them. In fact, she lived in Oklahoma and she had 7 children and umteen grandchildren and she visited every single one of them. My Benson cousins in Oklahoma have a ton of photos of my 2nd great-grandmother and I'm sure they have all of her possessions and personal items. And now I do too. 

I feel that it is important to identify these photos as those having belonged to my 2nd great-grandmother - they were collected by her; they were written on by her; they were important to her. I therefore want to keep these items separate from my great-grandmother Louise's personal items. They will probably get their own photo box. In this manner I am preserving the provenance of the collection by ensuring that the materials that belonged to my 2nd great-grandmother are kept separate from those belonging to my great-grandmother. 

I will also try to keep the original order of the things as I find them. I am not sure if they are in the original order that their creators initiated; but the least I can do is keep them in the order that I found them in. This can be important if and when I run across a photo that is not labeled. Sometimes, the photos it is grouped with can be helpful in identifying the unlabeled and unidentified photo. 

Here is my bulleted list of goals for this project: 

1.  Inventory

• Who, What, When, & Where?
• Lined notebook
• Materials bundled with rubber bands and post it notes
• Materials bundled in envelops
• Stored in numbered photo boxes

2.  Organize

• Photo boxes (stage 1)
• File folders (stage 2?)
• Letters, Documents, Bills, Photos, Memorabilia, etc

3.  Preserve

• Scan Items in Collection
• How many file folders or boxes are required? 

4.  Extract Genealogical Data

• Marriage, Death, Birth Certificates
• Photos, etc

I hope to do a little with these boxes each week and report back to you on what I found, what I did with it, and what I learned from it.

Sources: 

[1] Society of American Archivists, Website, Glossary, www2.archivists.org, accessed 17 January 2015.
[2] Image of Provenance Text Box created by the author, Ginger R. Smith, 21 January 2015. Feel free to use for noncommercial purposes with attribution back to this website. 

Louise's Lost Files

In December of 2014, my mother and I returned to Arkansas to clean out my grandfather's house. While we were there, my mother's maternal cousin brought over 3 boxes of family files that had come from my great-grandmother Louise Lasiter's house.

Louise Lasiter, 1955

My great-grandmother was born Thelma Louise Benson, January 1st, 1912 in Avant, Osage County, Oklahoma. She was the first child born to Barney Benson and Eva Dennis and became the oldest of eight children. She was a strong and independent young woman who graduated from Spiro High School in 1929. In the early 1930s she married James Putman Lasiter and they had 3 children: the oldest was Barbara Jean Lasiter, the middle child was James Putman Lasiter, Jr, and the youngest child was my grandmother, Sue Carolyn Lasiter. Unfortunately they have all passed away now. Louise and James "Put" Lasiter raised their three children in Fort Smith, Arkansas. They lived in the same house their whole life at 3720 Park Avenue. My great-grandmother lived in this house until she died in 1997. "Put" had already been gone for 20 years by then.

When my great-grandmother died, I was away at college. There had just been a big Christmas celebration and then she passed shortly after on the 27th of December.  After her death, her estate was divided between her three children, her personal belongings distributed or sold, and the house was sold and the profits also distributed between the three children. When my grandmother died in 2003, I helped my  mother clean out her house. Surprisingly I did not find anything from her mother, my great-grandmother's house. I assumed at the time that my grandmother had simply thrown everything out.

I did not become interested in genealogy until many years later. Then my mother showed me a couple of boxes of family photos that she had retrieved from my great-grandmother's house. She gave them to me in 2009. I inventoried and scanned all the contents and was able to extend the Lasiter tree out one more generation based on some writing on the back of a photo. But there were things missing. These boxes contained photos of my grandmother when she was young and of my mother and I throughout the years, and a few of my great-grandmother and her siblings, but nothing more from her Benson side of the family. I knew if my great-grandmother had kept any keepsakes from her childhood or from her parents, then they had to be in the boxes that were distributed to the other two children. And I was pretty darn sure my great-grandmother had kept some keepsakes. She kept everything and she wrote on everything!

Well you better believe that I sent letters to the children of my grandmother's oldest sister, Barbara. But they went unanswered. I queried her brother, but he too, said he didn't have anything. Now they are both gone. But his son surprised me. And guess what? His son is now interested in genealogy. Yep, he got the bug now too! And he decided to help me out.

I had found the genealogy gold mine!

I found room for 2 bankers sized boxes (they were bigger back then, by the way) and one small box that has two drawers in it on the trailer for the drive back to Georgia and then to North Carolina. I opened the boxes and you wouldn't believe what I found!

Photos of course! 

Bibles!

Bills! 

Letters!

School Report Cards!

More Photos! 

Three Boxes of Photos, Letters, and Family Memorabilia 

from my great-grandmother's house. 

Photo taken by Ginger R. Smith, 17 January 2015. 

My goal is to inventory all the items in these three boxes, preserve them, and scan the items of genealogical and historical value and post about them here, under Louise's Lost Files and share them on my Ancestry.com tree.  I will also be extracting genealogical data from the items and saving it to my genealogy software. My goal is to two-fold: to share the genealogy gold mine and to show how I can apply research methodology to extract genealogical data from the items within.

All posts relating to my great-grandmother's materials will be labeled with "Louise's Lost Files" followed by a brief description of their contents. I am estimating this project will take the better part of a year to complete. So stay tuned for more details!