3 Old Photo Stories You Can Tell Today

What are you going to do with all your old photos? You can tuck them away for safekeeping or you can use them to tell your family about their ancestors. Or, you can do both.

Your original prints belong in acid- and lignin-free boxes, but you can use the high-resolution scans to study details and write about the people depicted. Here are three tools to help you:

• Twile.com won last year’s RootsTech conference Innovator Challenge. On this site, you can create a free timeline of pictures and events for people in your family tree (uploads are limited for basic memberships). Share that information with relatives and, for an annual fee, encourage them to tell their side of the story on Twile. It’s effortless collaboration.

• MyCanvas.com, a photo book and poster site, has been around for a bit. The page templates here are geared more toward genealogy than other photo book sites’. I’m working on a book for a friend (a surprise for her granddaughter), and it’s easy and fun. You can create your book online and download PDFs of pages for free, and order professionally printed books. Watch your page count, though, because those extra pages can add up.

• Scrivener is a app/program costing about $45 that works on both OS and Windows, as well as on your tablet/phone. Used by professional authors, this writing tool helps you organize your notes, develop an outline and add pictures. When you’re done, you’ll have a project you can print for the family. There is a learning curve, but my colleagues who use this regularly tell me it’s worth the time. See Family Tree Magazine‘s review of Scrivener here.

I’ll be explore the expo hall at this week’s RootsTech conference in Salt Lake City, looking for new ways to use photos in genealogy. Of course, I’ll share my favorite finds with you!