I recalled having seen a big photo album of similar size in the bookshop in town a while back (when I was looking for smaller ones for other projects). So I went back now to check if they still had that big size. They did, so I bought it (the red one).
In some ways the big album is not very convenient, as it gets very heavy when full, and is too big for most of my shelves! But for this particular project it felt right, as it matches the shape and size of the old one - and the cards I primarily wanted to get sorted were from the same time period (going back even to WWI). (The new album has plastic pockets though. Not sure how good that is from archive point of view. But at least it's convenient for now!)
After I had put in the old cards from grandma's box, there was still room in the new album for some more. So I dug into another box, and also added some from my own lifetime - like cards sent to me from my parents, or from me to them.
All of this also stirred my interest in the really old cards again... So I'll give it a go to revive my old plan of posting about them on my family history blog, Greetings from the Past. A project started in 2012, but abandoned after a couple of years, because I just had too much else going on... (And I think I was without a working scanner for a while as well.) Between 2013 and recently, I only added a few posts based on photos rather than on the postcards.
But just now, I think I'm again feeling inspired to continue with the scanning and blogging of the postcards... I'm just about to reach the time (winter 1902/03) when Gustaf (the postcard-collector) and his sister Gerda (writer of many of the cards) both emigrated to the US. (He went Pennsylvania, she to Chicago.)
If you're interested, there are permanent links to the Greetings from the Past blog in the sidebar of this one.
The plastic pockets are so convenient. And nowadays, most of them are made from material that will not harm the photos. Going to check out your other blog now!
ReplyDeleteGinny, yes, the plastic pockets are convenient. The old cards are also all a small size which makes it rather easy to put them in and take them out. And having them in an album makes it easier to get an overview and to find some special card that one happens to remember (compared to keeping them in a box or envelope).
DeleteQuite a big project, I suppose!
ReplyDeleteI often find the writing on old postcards nearly impossible to read... including the ones I wrote when I was younger!
Yes, it is a big project... Which is one reason, I suppose, why it has sometimes seemed a bit too overwhelming. I have decided to keep my ambitions low and regard it as a slowly ongoing project rather than something I need to "finish". I'll continue where I left off, and see how far I get this time. I already learned some things, and by blogging about them along the way, I also got some unexpected responses in the past from other people who happened to come across my blog in their own internet searches. Unknown relatives, as well as total strangers!
DeleteAs for old handwriting, I agree it's often hard to decipher. But one learns a bit about that as well, along the way. (Especially when it's the same people who are writing.)
It's a good idea to continue scanning those old memories. We got given boxes of old slides from 50 years ago, it was good to go through them all and convert them onto a memory stick.
ReplyDeleteI have a box of my own old slides down in my basement storage... It's been sitting there unopened ever since I last moved, 11 years ago!
DeleteSorting my many shoe-boxes of post cards is yet another project! I enjoy your post-card blog without feeling the need to comment.
ReplyDeleteGraham, my inspiration for "sorting things" comes and goes. This week it was triggered by looking for (and NOT finding) certain things, but (re-)finding other things (that I had forgotten about) instead... I'll probably never get to the bottom of it all; and I'm also not convinced any more that it's always a good idea to move things to a new storage space (as I may be more likely to remember where it used to be before!)
Delete