There are a number of reasons why you should have all of your pictures scanned. It doesn’t matter if they were from the 1860’s or the 1960’s, scanning those pictures is not only a time consuming project to take on, but something you’ll be glad you did. Here are some main reasons why you’ll want to have them scanned.
There are many things that can happen to your pictures over time. Pictures are the priceless heirlooms meant to be passed on for many generations. They are the only windows to the distant past that we have to look through. For each person who possesses pictures, it should be their duty to protect and store them.There are many things that can happen to your pictures, so here is a list of reasons why you should scan them or have them scanned.
- Mold damage
- Mildew damage
- House Fires
- Water (floods)
- Theft (by strangers or even family!)
- Deterioration (breaking down of fibers in the picture)
- Fading (exposure to sunlight and/or time)
- Varmints (they’ll chew them to bits)
- Insects & pests (e.g. Silverfish that eat paper, etc)
- Heirs that sell / burn / dispose of the pictures because “”they don’t care””
- Estate sales (by accident or on purpose)
- No heirs or next of kin to the estate so they are sold or thrown away
On a side note, the other thing that should be noted are Family Bibles too. When my great-aunt passed away several years ago, her son was holding an estate sale. In one of the boxes were books, which also contained his grandfather’s Family Bible. (Don’t worry, it was rescued before the box was sold.)
As if all of this isn’t bad enough, the other natural disasters such as tornadoes can wipe everything out too.
The pictures you have may be the only copies in existence. How would you feel if you discovered that your third cousin took pictures of your great-great-great grandparents and other family members, and sold them to an antique store? Or worse, burned them and there were no other known copies of them?
What if you frequented a restaurant for years and on the walls hung one or two one of your ancestors, but you didn’t know it? To be so close, to wonder if the pictures ever even existed, and yet you were so far away from them at the same time.
We cannot change the things that happened yesterday, but we change today what will happen tomorrow.
Will you become a part of the problem or a part of the solution?
