Week 17: Document

     I really struggled with this prompt. It is such a simple prompt, but because of all the different possible avenues to take, I got tripped up. Nothing immediately stood out. Then it hit me. Why not write about what I am working on right now; which includes many documents. Perfect.

    I am currently in the process of digitizing a box of documents that belonged to my mom and dad. Something you might not think about digitizing. And more than likely, it's not in your collection anyway. What's that you ask? Tax documents. I know what you are thinking. Why wouldn't I digitize tax documents? Well, most of the time, people do not keep copies of their taxes past 10 years, or even less. Why would you? There is no need for them anymore. That's why I said it probably wouldn't even be in your collection anyway. Well, when it comes to my parents, as I've stated in the past, they don't get rid of ANYTHING!

    When I cleaned out my dad's filing cabinet, one whole drawer had tax returns going back to the early 1980s. I pulled them all out of the drawer and put them in a box to go through later. Later was a few months ago. As I started going through the envelopes, not only did I find their tax returns, I found receipts, canceled checks, notes, and more. Details about their lives for that year. Do you know how much information you can glean from these? It was at that moment that I decided to save the box to digitize. As much as I'd like to keep the originals, I just don't have room. So here I am now. Digitizing my parents' tax returns.

Receipts from 1985

    I will be writing another blog post later talking about the information you can learn from these documents. Some obvious facts and some not-so-obvious facts. And as the years went on, the requirements changed. As we get more currently, there are fewer and fewer extra documents. As I stated, some of the envelopes had returned checks. I scanned each one. It may be overkill, but I would rather do the extra work now than regret not doing it later. 

Drug Store Receipt
Jennifer Fuchs - 1985

    It is fun looking through receipts and such from when I was just a baby. Trying to learn more about my parents and their struggles trying to make ends meet. There were even medical receipts in these envelopes. I took the time to convert the income figure to today's amount to understand more. 

    So that's what I am currently working on. Pouring through many documents. Digitizing. Analyzing. Reminiscing. Definitely keeps me busy. I've been laid up with some health issues, so this works. What kind of documents are you going through right now?

Preserving Your History for the Future

     Something we never like to think about is the "What if something happens to me" scenario. My dad sure didn't like to think about it, nor did he like to talk about it. It was hard enough getting his estate in order before he passed. So now that he is gone, I have the job (and privilege) of going through his collection of "stuff".
     Dad was a hoarder. Not as bad as you see in the T.V. show, but he definitely did not like to get rid of stuff. And majority of the time, he knew where everything was, if it was important to him. No one was allowed to touch his stuff. I had to fight like hell just to get him to let me take his photos to digitize so nothing would happen to them. Now, there is nothing holding me back.
     While I'm going to enjoy going through my dad's stuff to find treasures, this all could have really been avoided. As much as my mom misses him, she is glad we can finally go through some things to organize them. She keeps talking to Dad's picture asking him, why he left this mess for us to handle when he could have done this himself. So she made a promise to me that she would not leave a big mess for me when she goes. And that got me thinking about my own collection.
     While I am not a hoarder like my dad, I do have a collection of family history items that is steadily growing. What is going to happen to this stuff once I'm gone? I've talked with many people recently about this topic and they have shared their own experiences where the family has just come in and thrown away so many things because it wasn't planned out or put in a will where it should all go.
     So I encourage you to go through your own collection, take stock, organize, and write down where you want everything to go. Make plans beforehand. If you want items donated to a historical society, call them first. Do the leg work beforehand so it makes it easier for your family. Talk to other family members about your collection and see who would be interested in it. The more prepared all of your stuff is, the less likely it is to be thrown out.
     For some great tips about preparing your own collection for the future, I suggest picking up the book "Planning a Future for Your Family's Past" by Marian Burk Wood. She talks about using the PASS process: 

• Prepare by organizing Materials 
• Allocate ownership 
• Set up a genealogical "will" 
• Share with heirs

     There are a lot of great tips on how to organize your genealogy materials, make decisions about your collection, and how to pass what you know to future generations. As she has on her book cover, "Keep your family's past alive to pass to future generations."
     If you are like me right now, you are stuck inside because of the weather, so now would be a great time to get started. You never know how much time you have. We barely got dad's paperwork in order before he passed. We knew it was coming, but not as fast as it did. So do it today, because tomorrow is promised to no one.

Finished Scanning Dad's Photo Box

      Well, the good thing about self quarantining is you get your photos digitized a lot faster. I've been putting this off for a while mostly for lack of time to just sit down and focus only on digitizing. As I mentioned before, I borrowed my dad's photo box to scan in everything that he had in that box, under his protest. He is very protective of his box of photos. Well, of his stuff in general. Understandable. He doesn't want to lose anything. I don't either, so I convinced him I would get them scanned in as soon as possible and bring the box back. Well, I finished it today.

     In this box, dad had a couple of albums, a box, two folders, and a whole bunch of loose photos. I shared a video the other day of my scanning process. The photo dates ranged from the early 1940s to more recent. The box had a variety of photos that I organized into groups. One album is a magnetic album my dad started years ago, and another album is a scrapbook I've been working on for my dad. Now everything in this box has been digitized and saved on my computer.

     I also worked on two albums that featured Lake photos that belonged to my dad. One I had brought back from the lake in order to scan them in. Dad doesn't know about that though. I will return them hopefully soon. In one of the albums, it was photo gold. The majority of them had information written on the back. Possibly written by my grandma Fuchs. These photos are the building of Papa's lake house on Bull Shoals Lake in the mid-1970s.

     Now I may be done with this box, but I am far from done with all my digitization. I still have many boxes of photos to go through to scan. Then I will need to add the Metadata to all these photos. Oh my goodness this is going to take a long time. But at least they will be saved on my computer. 

Watch my video here of the process I used to digitize these photos

What are you doing during this Pandemic?