How Can You Find and Preserve Old Family Photos and Documents?

Old family photos are more than nice things to hang on the wall. They offer tangible connections to ancestors that tell stories of different times and places and offer a personal glimpse into the type of lives that you cannot find in official records. Finding them can happen in the attic, in old publications, or online. Preserving them takes great care and organization. Learn how to find these hidden family treasures and make sure they stay accessible to future generations.

How to Find Old Family Photos and Documents?

As with most genealogy research, the quest for family pictures and paperwork starts close to home. Search in attics, basements, and boxes kept stashed at the back of closets and in forgotten drawers. If cleaning out the home of a deceased older relative, pay special attention to wallets, luggage, and jewelry boxes. People often tucked their favorite and most treasured family memories in there.

Talk to family members to see if they have any old boxes of their own that you can search through. Also, ask for stories of special events or traditions that you can use for research later. There are many hidden clues that can spark new opportunities in old pictures.

Expand your search to local sources like libraries, historical societies, and other genealogical groups both online and off. Schools undoubtedly have yearbooks to explore. Churches and other religious groups keep history on hand. Organizations like unions, colleges, local orders, and more are other great sources of old photos and documents.

Finally, move the search online. You can search most of the above public records and collections. Dedicated genealogy sites can help, as can newspaper archives and public photo repositories. If you have an existing image or document, upload it and perform a reverse image search to see where else it or similar ones show up. You just might find a brand new research opportunity.

Building your family tree on MyHeritage can actually help you find old family photos thanks to the Photo Discoveries™ feature, which identifies family tree profiles that match the people in your tree and brings you public photos from that tree that you might not have yet

How to Preserve Old Family Photos and Documents?

Keeping photos and paperwork in attic boxes or old wallets has worked for many years, but it’s not an ideal way to preserve these important pieces of family history. One of the best tips for permanent storage is to digitize everything. Scan photos and documents into your computer and keep them in an external hard drive or in secure cloud storage.

The MyHeritage app is a convenient and easy way to do that: you can scan photos directly into your family tree simply using your mobile phone camera. With the multi-photo scanner on the app, you can even capture multiple photos at once, and they’ll be automatically cropped out as individual photos — making it possible to scan entire photo albums in mere minutes.

Once your photos are on MyHeritage, you can tag the people in them, repair them, colorize black and white photos, restore colors, or even animate your photos with MyHeritage’s AI-powered photo features. MyHeritage even has a feature called PhotoDater™ that can help you estimate when old photos were taken.

Physical storage options depend on the item type and material. Store photos and paper in acid-free folders. Use archival quality boxes or airtight bins. Keep everything in cool, dry places with low risk of damage from sun, damp, or pests. Do not use any staples, paperclips, or rubber bands.

Also, do not write directly on any historical photos or documents. Label the paper you wrap them in instead. Make sure the ink doesn’t touch the actual object. These are basic precautions that will help keep them preserved for future family enjoyment.

A single snapshot from a long-ago birthday party or an obscure online document can enrich your whole understanding of family history. No matter where you find them, old photos and paperwork bring a lot to your genealogy research. As you discover these treasures, preserve them properly to create a lasting legacy that everyone can enjoy. 

Protect them well, keep them organized on MyHeritage.com, and enjoy.