Scanning Photos

After Mom's funeral, I volunteered to take her photo albums and boxes of photos, scan them in to the computer so all of her children could have a copy. Finally, after nearly four months, I finished scanning in over 1400 photos. Then I purchased six USB thumb drives, copied the photos onto them, along with a copy of my genealogy database and all documents associated with my genealogy work. While I don't expect all of my brothers and sisters to be interested in browsing the family tree, if all they have to do is hold on to a thumb drive, they won't mind acting as my emergency backup. Never forget to back up your data and put it at a location away from your main computer.

I've already posted some interesting photos from her collection. Here are a few more that I found interesting.

Julia Doran (my grandmother), Mamie Doran (her sister) and an unidentified woman. I recognize the fence as being in front of the old Doran home.

Anna, Cecelia and Crescent Miller standing, Julia, Mamie and Maurice Doran sitting.

Fort Madison Central Catholic High School Class of 1947. My father, John Miller is 3rd from left and 3rd from bottom.

August and Mary Harmeyer Menke 59th Wedding Anniversary - my great-grandparents

My father was "enlisted" to pose as the mail man delivering NSLI dividend checks for this publicity photo for the Navy.

My father on board the USS Skagit en route to Korea

My father at about two years old

My father (right) with his older brother, Leo Jr.

My father, John Miller on left, then uncles Albert Panther, Elmer Steffensmeier, Urban Panther, Eugene Panther, Bob Blind. Christmas 1952

An article about my uncle Eugene Panther receiving an award for saving the life of a young man

My first cousins once removed, Jim and Melvin Panther

Take the time to scan in all the old family photos you have the opportunity to. You'll be able to share them with as many people as you'd like for no charge and the scans will act as backups in case the original photographs are damaged or destroyed.

--Matt