The word "preservation" does not invoke in my mind the spirit of one of my ancestors, so instead I am going to address the distinction between "preservation" and "conservation" and describe my commitment to preserving my family history. Many people use the terms interchangeably but they really aren't the same thing. One you are totally capable of doing yourself and the other needs a professional.
To preserve something is to protect it and to conserve something is to fix it.
As a genealogist it is likely that you want to see both things happen for your collection. You should actively be doing preservation all the time. Preserving your genealogy research, documents, photographs, heirlooms, etc. by organizing your piles of paper records, labeling photos, and putting everything in archival quality sleeves and boxes ought to be every genealogist's commitment to their family history. Preserve it!
Conservation, again, should be left to professionals.
Thus, it is important to be able to distinguish the two needs for your collection and to learn the best practices for preserving your precious family records that, hopefully, will survive for generations to come. You need to know reputable retailers from whom to purchase quality archival materials such as folders and boxes that are both acid free and lignin free.
- Do not use metal paperclips or staples - they rust.
- Do not use tape unless it is acid free tape, otherwise, it will, in time, yellow and damage paper.
- Do not use rubber bands - they are the devil's snot. I said it! Overtime they deteriorate into clumpy, gooey, gunk. Don't do it!
When you have something that is already damaged, though, and you want to restore it to its original condition, that is conservation. Again, seek a professional! You do not want to cause more damage by trying to do it yourself if you really don't know how. Gorilla gluing Aunt Gertie's broken Victorian brooch back together will significantly devalue it.
I suggest always checking with the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) (http://www.conservation-us.org/). They have a section of their website called "Find a Conservator" where you can locate someone in your area to help with your conservation problem whether it is a damaged book, textile, image, etc. Yeah, sometimes you have to pay someone to do it right, but sometimes they might offer advice to you before you fuck up that precious piece of family history forever.
How do I commit to preservation, you ask? Ok maybe you didn't but I'm gonna tell you.
First off, confession - - Like most people I am not good at keeping up with organizing my genealogy records. Sure, I am a professional cataloger and I look all shades of organized but I let it slip just like everyone else. It takes time. Often time I do not have. So...
...you may have noticed my first name is the same as a month. When April rolls around I do my computer files back up, my preservation of family stuff, and the review of all my paper files at work - annually. It makes sense then, workwise, because May is annual report time at work. I've got to get stuff in order for that and if I'm doing it for work, I might as well do it for genealogy stuff too. I do try to stay organized all year long as I collect records and family ephemera but come April I try to catch whatever fell through the organization cracks. And it is always much more than I wish it was.
Setting an annual reminder to make things right in your world is good back up plan, even if you are not named after a month. Just pick one in which to set some time aside.
But really we should be preserving as we go along. So here is my advice for making preservation more automatic.
Develop a filing scheme!
This should include both a paper filing plan and an electronic file naming scheme.
I used to have this great system. Every document I obtained I made a copy of it for each family member named within it. I would then file it away in a folder for each individual. For example, I made 3 copies of my own birth certificate; I filed one in a folder for me, one for my father, and one for my mother. The system worked wonderfully. If you asked me about my dad, I would just bust out his folder and every document I had that mentioned him was right there. Fabulous!
The downfall of that system was that it was so cumbersome. It would grow exponentially every year. It is one thing to have 3 copies of a birth certificate in 3 folders but consider, if you will, a will.
I have one will in my collection that is 14 pages long and names 28 relatives. In my old system that would result in 392 pages of paper. Think about census records; they name whole households which is not too weighty if you have 3 family members in a household but what about those families that consisted of 10, 11, 12, 13 children. Watch out photocopier and what a waste of paper!
So I now have another system in place; one that has significantly streamlined my paper collection. I developed an Microsoft Access database in a graduate class I took many years ago and I still use it. This database changed my research life!
The database allows me to keep 1 copy of each document and link it to as many people as necessary, sort of how Ancestry allows you to link 1 census record to many family members resulting in that census showing on each person's profile page. Each paper document I acquire is given a unique identification numbers and simply filed in an a protective sleeve in a binder in the order in which I acquire them. Each individual is also given a unique identification number which allows me to pull up a list of all the documents related to a specific individual. I then use that list to retrieve the documents I want.
Cut the volume of my old collection significantly. I went from 4 4-drawer file cabinets stuffed with folders and papers to about 6 2" 3-ring binders.
When I save electronic files to my computer, I just rename every document to fit into the following pattern. "Surname_First name_Year of document_Abbreviated type of document." So my great grandpa's birth registration, for example, was named Earle_Abram_1892_birth reg. His death certificate, Earle_Abram_1973_death cert. If I stick with that pattern the documents will sort themselves out by family name and then in chronological order for each individual. All of Abram Earle's documents will list themselves chronologically as Earle_Abram_year_document type.
I know, I know, I make it sound much easier than it is to keep everything in some sort of order, accessible, and preserved but always leave just a few minutes more to organize as you go along and it will be so much less time consuming and overwhelming.
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