In today’s digital age, many of our most precious memories and significant communications take place online. From heartfelt emails exchanged with loved ones to candid photos shared on social media or buried in our phones camera rolls. These digital artifacts are an integral part of our personal and family histories. However, preserving these memories can be a daunting task.
Today we’ll discuss how to prevent an entire generation from losing their history to the void of the digital age.
As well as how to prepare these back-ups for easy integration into your Archoral Archive!
Today’s generations are the most photographed in history…
More pictures are taken every two minutes than were taken throughout the entirety of the 1800s.
Sources: PetaPixel, SWNS Digital
Max Woolf, PhotoAiD.com, October 2024
With those staggering statistics, think about how many images will actually be seen by future generations!
- Will your children or ancestors access your devices?
- Without physical photo albums for future generations to find, how will they share and explore their history?
Archoral is built to help preserve these memories in an accessible and interactive way!
Start Gathering all of those loose memory cards, thumb drives and video cards!
You’ll be able to upload them directly to your Archivist account to start organizing and preserving your family legacies!
What about letters? They contain context and give relevance to the daily life of your ancestors.
When was the last time you wrote or received one?
Does it concern you that your emails get lost in the void of the internet?
So much communication happens via email these days. Be it family updates, invitations, trip itineraries, or in-depth historical discussions. No matter how simple the communication may seem, it’s a relevant time capsule to your life and the lives of those around you.
- Identify Important Emails: Look for personal correspondence, significant announcements, or meaningful exchanges.
- Export Emails: Many email platforms allow you to download and save emails as .pdf files.
Is your daily communication done through messaging formats?
Source: Penn Haven Survey
Social Media
- Review Your Posts: Go through your social media accounts and identify posts that capture important moments, stories, or reflections.
- Use Download Features: Platforms like Facebook and Instagram allow you to download your data, including posts, photos, and messages.
- Screenshots and Backups: For platforms without easy download options, take screenshots or manually save posts and conversations.
Organizing In Preparation For Your Archoral Archive!
By structuring your media files in this manner, or one similar, you will be a step ahead when you’re ready to upload to your Archoral Archive!
1st Level: Family Branch
Make main folders for each family. In Archoral, each family branch will become a Collection.
- Families are formed when two people join together. This makes it difficult to decide where to put your memories.
- Archoral allows you to open multiple collections together to see the entirety of family activities.
Example: When visiting my fathers relatives, I’ll open the Adams, George and Forry Collections. When visiting my mothers relatives, I’ll open the Forry, Hallahan and Ohliger Collections. Thus only viewing family members relevant to each group!
2nd Level: Source
Knowing the source gives context and keeps items in groupings for future reference. This can be family members that have shared files with you, or the names of the devices you’ve gathered them from.
Example: I am the keeper of several generations of information. Knowing which physical collection things came from allows me to easily find the original if I need to.
3rd Level: Item Type
Item type allows you to segregate information as you see fit. I personally create a Collection level container for each family’s Furniture & Items so those images do not disrupt the nostalgia of looking at family photos. I can also be used to further notate each items location within a physical collection.
Example: Along with Collections for each family branches photos and documents, I create Collections for each family’s Artifacts. This allows me to work on the “things” separately from other items. I also label the folders as “Small box 1”, “Black photo Album” and so on.
4th Level: Date & Event
Creating folders by date and event aids in group Indexing upon upload.
Example: Archoral has Quick Indexing that allows you to add bulk details to entire groups of media. Instead of adding the Event Name, Date and Location to each individual file, you can assign the information in bulk.
Embracing the Future of Family History
Preserving digital memories is about more than just safeguarding files—it’s about weaving these modern artifacts into the broader tapestry of your family history.
Archoral is built to gather, curate and display all of this information in an engaging way, ensuring that the story of your life in the digital age will endure for generations to come.
One Response
Nice Post