It is inevitable, as we continue our quest to find our ancestors and dig deep enough to find more about their lives, photographs, letters, news clippings and other relics may come into your possession. It is our duty as family historians to preserve those materials for posterity.
You may be asking yourself how or where do I get started with preserving my families history. Well, that it the reason that I am writing this post. Since I just want to share with you a great resource that has helped me get started in this area.
Janette Garcia the current archivist for the Lower Rio Grande Valley Special Collections has created a great 13 page PDF document titled “Dusting off the decades: Caring for your treasures form home” and it is offered by the University of Texas Pan American to everyone to download for free.
They are also providing a Slide Show Presentation that highlights everything that is in the PDF. It is great for presentations of Genealogy societies to make their members more aware of different techniques to preserve and restore family history items.
Dusting off the Decades
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You can download both from the following links:
How to Care for your Treasures at Home handout
Dusting off the Decades slideshow
I know you will find this resources very helpful and informative, but don’t stop there. Start today preserving your photos and old documents. At least preserve them by scanning them and giving copies to your family.
If you are interested in learning more or want to buy materials to help you in your preservation check out Amazon.com. Just search for the items that you just learned with the PDF handout and slideshow.
Let me know about your projects or how you will use what you learned to preserve your own family history.