Digitize those family photos at scan-a-thon event this week

This week, residents of Weiser and other communities are invited to come to the Family History Center at the Weiser Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to get a little extra help discovering information about their ancestors.

 The community is invited to participate in the spring scan-a-thon at the Weiser Family History Center on March 5-8. The event is free and open to the public from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. 

 The goal is to digitize photographs and slides rapidly with a special scanner that can digitize 60 photographs per minute and 100 slides about every 15 minutes. 

 The volunteer staff members are proficient in a number of areas of research including but not limited to Germany, United Kingdom, the Scandinavian areas. Other seasoned staff workers continue to use some of the older forms of data organization such as “Roots Magic” and PAF (Personal Ancestral File).  

 One of the most important things that people can do to make family histories interesting is to include stories with images and other information. The volunteers can teach people how to add scanned images or documents to “Family Search” and “Ancestry.”

 Ancestry center volunteer George Roth had an interesting experience with growing his ancestral knowledge when he found a great aunt that his father had only recalled a little about. 

 His youthful memory of her was, “she made the best sugar cookies that I ever ate. They would melt in your mouth. There were always some on the kitchen table.” 

 Through the family history savvy Roth and sister Susan shared, they did some digging and research and found her. She and her husband had farmed in Sandpoint. Roth was able to add the sweet memory to her “memories” record in Ancestry as a conversation.

 The process of finding our ancestors and adding this information to their history helps index the data. Digitizing the information allows the data to become “searchable.” 

 “That is how the leaves in Ancestry are grown…in the fertile soil of indexing historical records,” Roth said. 

 If one has the desire to assist in the indexing projects, anyone may participate. This creates a link to records that are valuable to those that are searching for additional clues to their ancestors history.

 People interested in participating in the scan-a-thon should bring an unused flash drive for storing the digitized images that is eight GB or larger. There are new 16 GB flash drives for purchase at the Family History Center for $4. 

 Remove photographs from albums and any sticky tabs. If older pictures are mounted on cardboard, scan them separately on the Epson photograph flatbed scanner. In order to save time and avoid jamming the scanner, sort pictures by: Specific folders/sub-folders you want to create (i.e. years, children, location, etc.), size (3x5, 4x6, 5x7, 8x10, etc.) Direction (portrait or landscape), photos with content on both sides and/or only one side.

 The family history center also has a separate scanner for 35 mm slides as well. It will accept the round carousels of 80 slides. Anyone interested in more information about the scan-a-thon can contact George Roth at (208) 484-7164.