IONA ROBERTSON

( PPT ) presentation to honour our dad on his eightieth birthday . I had no idea that I was stepping into a whole new role as the family archivist ! When Mom and Dad built and moved into the new house on this hundred-year-old farm forty years ago , the photos were moved from the attic of the old house to the drawers , closets , shelves and storage spaces of the new house , still out of sight and usually out of mind . My family had many avid photographers , with good-looking subjects and colourful experiences to record . There was a vast pictorial history .

To illustrate the sheer volume of material , I discarded five large , black garbage bags of slides of scenery from around the world , none of which had a person in the picture ! The current albums contained pictures of the last sixty-five years of Mom and Dad ’ s history with seven children , sixteen grandchildren and nineteen greatgrandchildren — six generations of a large , proud Canadian family .

After a decade of fixing and filing , the final phase of the project was completed in the summer of 2016 when family members received flash drives containing over 5000 pictures on 1700 PowerPoint slides , sorted into nineteen presentations for viewing convenience . Different sets of presentations were distributed to the various family members according to the significance of the subjects for them ( Mom ’ s family , Dad ’ s family , siblings , farm history and so on ).

All of the extended family were offered the flash drives . Now we have instant presentations for family gatherings and photos to share when we need them . Photos have been digitally repaired and enhanced . There are several copies , so no one person is the Keeper of the History any longer .

The 16 GB flash drives have enough storage to add to the files when one of us comes across other photos worthy of sharing or of inclusion in one ’ s own family collection , so everything is in one place . Reproduction is easy and books of the photos can be printed . Perhaps the main advantage to having the photos stored this way is the safety and security from disasters such as flood , fire and mould .

You may wish to archive your own collection of photos and slides . There are many resources available on the Internet , which you may find helpful .

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