Your family chronicle – with digitalised snapshots
Taking photos is easy today, get your phone or camera out, take some snapshots and upload them instantly. With a few mouse clicks you could even create a whole photo book in a few minutes, order it straight away and it will come through your letterbox in just a few days.
It used to be different. In the best case, there were just 36 pictures, and you therefore had to choose them wisely and protect the resulting treasures all the more carefully! I'm sure most of you have a box of analogue photos of grandparents or parents stowed away somewhere. Isn’t it high time to digitise these precious memories and make something special out of them?
How do you start a family chronicle?
A family chronicle tells a family’s story, your family, over the generations. It is not complete and can be added to again and again. What do the children and grandchildren know about their parents, grandparents or even great-grandparents? What stories and traditions are there in your family that you would like to preserve and share with others?
The larger the family or the further you want to go back, the more branched the strands become. Which is why you should think about how detailed you want to make your chronicle first of all. How large-scale should the book be, how far back do you want to go into the family history, and to what extent does it make sense at all? It's best to look at the pictures you have and see what they are. So you can also think about how you want to structure your family chronicle. Basically, there are no limits to the imagination when designing a chronicle.
Family chronicle sorted by family members
Do you mainly have portraits or photos that you cannot assign to any event or that show everyday experiences? Then it is useful if you arrange the chronicle by family members and their age and family branch. For example, you can start with your great grandfather or grandfather, maybe with a nice portrait photo from their youth?
It also makes sense to write down important key data, such as the name, birthday and place of birth, and to complement them with witty character traits, hobbies and passions or general fun facts. Was your father a passionate fisherman? Or did grandma bake the best apple cake? Add this information! It's the little, special things that remind us of our loved ones.
Family chronicle sorted by family events
Does your photo collection mainly include family celebrations, weddings or holidays together? Then it is worth creating a family chronicle by family events, that is chronologically.
In the past, one tended rather to save valuable photo films for special days, be it a new apartment or the children’s first day at school. You do not need to know the exact date, it's enough to make a note of the year and work your way through the decades, piece by piece. Birthdays are certainly important, as well as weddings, but also small outings or the first baby tooth lost. Leave some space next to the photos now and again to glue memories such as tickets or invitations.
Whatever you do in the end, it will be worthwhile in any case! A family chronicle is not just a great way to capture your loved ones and their very personal family stories and traditions for yourself or your children, but is also great as a gift for other family members!
What’s the easiest way to digitise your photos?
Scan the photos yourself
One option is to scan the photos yourself at home. The advantage of this is that you already have all the photos on your computer and can start the chronicle straight away. The disadvantage is that this method is very time consuming and requires a very good scanner (especially for very old photos).
Photograph photos
Photographing photos sounds a bit absurd at first but is not such a bad solution. You can directly influence the light and the images are then uploaded at lightning speed. It could be a bit more complicated though as you have to be careful to avoid reflections, shadows or distortions.
Have the photos scanned by a professional
Take your treasures to a photographer, they will take the work off your hands and you will have all the scanned photos on your laptop in no time at all – some photographers even edit the images to improve any irregularities. The disadvantage here: It will of course cost you!
Samira Hammami
Samira is actually an art history student, but she has always had a passion for writing. It all started with small blog articles about her biggest hobby: traveling.
Now she writes about all sorts of creative aspects of life, and for some time she has also been supporting ifolor with her articles. Because she is most drawn towards reporting she is especially happy to be starting a master degree course in Cultural Journalism in September.