Digitizing Your Family History

Digitizing Your Family History Day

Saturday, April 12, 2014 ~
10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
820 E. Washington Ave
Burlington Public Library Community Meeting Room
Free  

The Burlington Public Library invites current and former Burlington and surrounding area residents to bring family photographs, personal and historical documents, and photographs of the local Burlington community to the library to be scanned into a digital format.

Scanning photographs and documents allows you to create copies that be used and shared. This minimizes damage to precious originals from everyday handling. Up to five photos or documents may be scanned per family (free). The photographs will be scanned onsite and the originals immediately returned to their owners.
Local historians, genealogists and librarians will be on site to provide advice on dating, organizing, describing and preserving family photographs.  Program participants are encouraged to stay, ask questions and share their histories with other participants and historians.  Participants are also invited to be interviewed or to submit written information about the history of their photos.   There will also be a video lecture on the “Preservation of Family Photographs”:  11 a.m. and 1 p.m. (1 hour)

To participate, contributors should sort through their photo albums or scrap books and select up to five photographs or documents that they believe represent themselves, their family histories and/or their community. Any photos are welcome: family portraits, special occasions, snapshots, weddings, military service, sporting events, historic buildings and businesses, then and now views, and commercial development.  Photographs should be in the original format. For example, if the photo is a print, then the contributor should bring the original print if at all possible, rather than a photocopy. If the photo was “born digital” (i.e. taken with a digital camera), then the contributor should bring the photo on a CD or USB drive.   Suggested documents include award certificates, historical posters, brochures, menus, tickets, handbills, news clippings, and any printed materials representing people, places and events of the Burlington area.

Participants will be asked to complete a form that provides background on the significance of the photos and asked contribute (optional) the scanned photos to a possible “Preserving Burlington History” digital database.

The program and scanning services will be provided at no charge.  Priority given to Rootsproject participants and Burlington community residents and former residents.  Funding for this program is provided by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation as part of the “ROOTS Project: Learning Family History,” a cooperative program between the Burlington Public Library and the Skagit Valley Genealogical Society.