Memory Care Books are now available!

We are now making Memory Care Books! Many are touched by dementia and Alzhiemer’s disease, my family certainly has been. The loss of memories and the feeling of lost connections can be frustrating and anger provoking not only in those with memory loss, but also in their family and caregivers.

Reminiscing through photographs has shown promise in reducing depression and anxiety, improving cognition, and in improving overall mood in those with dementia. A Memory Care Book with photos of the person’s life and significant people and events can enhancing a sense of belonging and connection with family members and caregivers.

Our books are customized in content and format based upon the recommendations from memory care experts. Special consideration for each book are: the level of memory loss, specific content, sequencing, formatting of the pages, and font types and sizes. Our books are high quality with archival quality papers and are hand stitched for durability. They are nearly lie flat and will fit on someone’s lap to allow two people to sit side-by-side in a non-threatening way to connect with one another.

Prices start at $125 for a 20 page book. Books can fit up to 100 pages for an additional charge. Additional copies of the same book are available starting at $95.

Ready to get started? Fill out the contact form and you will be sent instructions on what photos and information to send in. Don’t have high-quality digital copies of photos? We can digitize your photos, as well.

**Update** Online course- Finding photographic materials in your family history research

I will be hosting an online course LIVE on Wednesday, March 25th at 7PM CT, on finding photographic materials in your family history research. I will be discussing finding not just photographs of ancestors, but other materials such as images of churches and military units.

Please e-mail me at research@finderskeepers.family and I will send you an invite to the call.

**UPDATE** I am trying out a new platform and thought that I would need to send an invite to each person attending. That is not the case. You can call in or join via Google Hangouts Meet. I will have slides, so being able to see my screen would be useful.

Join Hangouts Meet

meet.google.com/ect-obin-rmv

Join by phone

‪+1 419-684-2016‬ PIN: ‪719 658 110‬#

Mabel Dague with two new teachers at Classen High School, photo by Ronald Pyer, 26 August 1952, published in the Daily Oklahoman 28 August 1952 from the Oklahoma Historical Society

Copy of Paper lasts longer than digital?!

It seems odd to think that digital photos and files would not last as long as paper or would need more maintenance.

Technology is changing so quickly and we do not often maintain our files, so that they are still accessible. My father-in-law was an English professor for 30 years. It was not infrequent that he would have a student once and then a couple of years later have that student again (he was a very popular professor) and he pointed out how once how a student had some papers saved on a 8” floppy disk, but a couple of years later could no longer access them because the new standard was a 5-1/2” floppy. Throughout my own education, I started with 5-1/2” floppies and technology advanced to 3” floppies, CD’s, flash drives, to various sizes of SD cards. My current laptop has an SD card slot and USB access, but no disk drive.

In regards to photos, when someone passes away, do we sort through albums and boxes and bins of photos or do we get on their digital devices and sort through the digital photos that they have?

Another problem with these digital archives is access. I have Amazon Prime Photos which backs up the photos taken on my phone; however, my children do not have my Amazon password (they are far to tech savvy to have access to my Amazon Prime account) and my husband cannot remember the password. My husband uses Google Photos and I do not know his passwords. My cell phone has a password, which my children also don’t have. (As a photo organizer, I do have back-up copies of files and photos.)

Lastly, digital files can be vulnerable. Computers crash, files become corrupt and it horrific cases ransomware can hold files hostage.

I have four children and it takes a while after the arrival of each one for a new normal to be achieved. Downloading photos was not high on the priority list when sleep deprived with an infant. Probably around the time my youngest was a year old, I wanted to go through the photos we had of her and make an album. When I got the card out of the digital camera it was corrupt and I could not access the photos. The only photos I have for October 2011 were those taken on my cell phone and not our nice digital camera, since I wanted nice quality photos taken of the day we got her, I had only used our digital camera. So no pictures of “gotcha-day” or any of her first month with us.

My girl after trick-or-treating. The only photos I have of her first month with us.

Protecting your photos

While magnetic or “sticky” albums were a quick and easy way to make photo albums, they used an acidic adhesive to attach photos and mementos to the pages. The acid in the adhesive on the pages damages the photos, while they are so sticky that it can be difficult to remove photos and papers without damaging the document and the plastic page protector adds to the damage further by helping to contain fumes given off by the pages.

To remove photos from the albums use a piece a waxed dental floss and carefully slide under the photos, starting in one corner to separate the photo from the album page.

Metadata in photos- Save your photos month

Metadata is information embedded in your digital files and it stays with the file when you e-mail it or give a digital copy to another person.  It can convey information about copywrite, the type of camera used to take a photo, the type of scanner used to digitize a photo, and location of where a photo was taken.  However, you can also add information to a digital photo, this can help you by making it easier to find photos of a certain person or place and document the story about the picture.

Adding metadata to a digitized photo in Windows:

• Right click on a file
• Click 'Properties'
• Click on the tab named 'Details'
• Click next to Title, Details, etc. and enter information about the file
• Use the 'Tags' to list location of the photo and individuals in the photo
• Use 'Comments' to describe the photo and enter narrative information about the photo

Below is an example of metadata added to a photo file.

Below is some basic information I added to describe the photo.

Subject- I described the photo. 

Rating- I rated is 4 stars because it is not a terrific photo, but I do have information about the photo. 

Comments- 'Aline visiting her parents, William Klatt and Florence Dean in Medford, Oregon at their Sewing Machine Store.'

Date taken- '1/1/2018', as I know it was taken in 1938, but I do not know the exact date

For more information on metadata and photos see my Pinterest board.

#saveyourmemories