How to Preserve Family Photos, Videos, and Memories for Future Generations

“The first step is always to do it now, wherever you need to start,” says Doretha Williams, director of the Center for the Digitization and Curation of African American History, part of NMAAHC. Here are tips on how to begin.

When you dig through decades’ worth of documents, it can “stretch you mentally, emotionally, and physically,” Singletary says. “Be patient with yourself and others through the process.”

You might set out to celebrate the best parts of your family’s past, experts say, but come across items that remind you of difficult times or great losses. Acknowledging that possibility will prepare you for what might be an emotional journey. 

Many family stories haven’t yet been captured on paper, film, or other media; they live in the heads of relatives. If you’re fortunate to have grandparents or other elders you can interview, now’s the time to reach out.

Williams learned from her grandfather that his grandfather had served in the Civil War, and after doing some research, she was surprised to find her great-great grandfather’s name etched on the African American Civil War Memorial a few blocks from her D.C. home. “My grandfather passed when he was 102,” she says, “And that’s one of the best conversations we ever had.”

StoryCorps, a nonprofit organization that helps people preserve their stories through interviews, offers lists of questions to ask. For example: “What are the most important lessons you’ve learned in life?” and “Do you remember any of the stories your favorite relatives used to tell you?” If you’d like to record the conversation for posterity, you can use the StoryCorps mobile app or video conferencing tool. Both provide the option of uploading the audio to the Library of Congress if you and your interview partner wish. 

Try to follow up oral tradition with research that expands the story. Over a casual lunch with her grandmother, author and genealogist Bernice Bennett learned that her great-great-grandfather owned 160 acres of land in Louisiana after the Civil War—a surprise given that he had formerly been enslaved. That led Bennett down a 15-year journey to gather documentation to verify what she had uncovered and learn more about her family.

What do you do with all the material you’ve gathered? Curate the collection like a museum archivist would.

“I would encourage people to take the time to identify what’s valuable in their possession,” says Cogdell Moore, “because everything doesn’t have the same intrinsic value.” Think about items you have by asking, “Is this something I want to pass down for future generations?”

This doesn’t mean that you should toss everything that doesn’t fit that description. But prioritize preserving the things that will have lasting emotional and historical resonance.

Professional photographer and teacher Don Orkoskey has extensively researched his own family history. He suggests identifying the names of people in the photos, and if possible, recording more information, too. “What were they doing here in this photo? Was it a birthday, a wedding, etc.? Get the story because that brings the photo to life.” 

Good labeling also helps future generations. “You never know,” Orkoskey says. “You might have that photo from Frank’s wedding and by knowing the names of the people in the photo, some far-off relative 80 years from now might recognize the name of a great-aunt who attended the wedding and appears in no other family photos.”

If pieces of the puzzle are missing, recruit other family members to help get the information you need. 

You can retouch or restore old photos in software like Adobe Photoshop, says Consumer Reports’ social media program manager David Morgan. After his father died in 2017, Morgan took to scanning old photos of his parents “as a process of mourning and remembrance.” In Photoshop, he removed some of the wear marks and boosted the colors. 

“I really wish everyone would preserve their family’s history,” Orkoskey says, “because we all end up being stories in the end, and each one of those stories is worth so much to so many people who haven’t even been born yet.” Although we might not be able to make anything persist forever, many photos, documents, and other items have lasted for centuries. Here are a few tips to put the odds in your favor.

When storing old photos and documents make sure you house them in museum quality or archival acid-free folders and boxes. 

The Library of Congress offers instructions on the safe care, handling, and storage of books, paper, photographs, scrapbooks and albums, newspapers, comic books, motion picture film, records, magnetic tape, optical discs, and other items.

According to the NMAAHC, here are five key things to keep in mind:

• Avoid bright or direct light.
• Maintain a consistent temperature, one the average person would feel comfortable in year-round.
• Keep objects clean, but clean them with care. Remove dust with a soft, lint-free cloth and avoid harsh commercial cleansers or solvents.
• Guard against insects and pests.
• Avoid excess moisture. Don’t store items in the basement or anywhere else where humidity and mold are common.

All of the experts we interviewed emphasize the importance of digitizing your photos, film, audio recordings, and documents—and saving the originals. To digitize printed material, you can use a dedicated scanner, an all-in-one printer, or even a smartphone.

Because hardware can become obsolete (anyone remember the Zip disk or Betamax?) and physical media can degrade over time, it’s also critical to save digital copies to the most current formats and storage media. For example, if you have files on CDs, transfer them to your computer, an external hard drive, or the cloud, since CD players are growing less common. 

Always start with the source material, Orkoskey says. “If you’ve got an 8mm film reel that was converted to VHS then transferred to a DVD, don’t just copy the contents of the DVD. Find a service that can take that 8mm and import it digitally and possibly even enhance it.”

Here’s how to convert film and VHS to digital.

If you don’t have a backup system in place yet, now is the time to set one up. Ideally, you’d store copies of your files in three places. Think computer, an external hard drive, and a cloud service, for example. That protects you if your computer dies or gets stolen, as well as if a natural disaster hits home.

Since hard drives have a limited lifespan, it’s a good idea to check your drive’s health once in a while, say, when you change the clocks for daylight savings time or if your computer is starting to feel sluggish. Some hard drive manufacturers provide their own tools, but you can use your computer’s built-in utilities, instead.

On Mac, open Disk Utility > First Aid > Verify Disk.

On Windows, type “cmd” into the search bar to open Command Prompt. Then enter “wmic diskdrive get status” (without the quotes).

Finally, don’t keep all this work to yourself. Sharing your collection and making it accessible to others can deepen the connections you have with family members. On a practical note, copies you make for them also serve as backups and help the artifacts live on after you’re gone.

Consider making a ritual of passing things down or going over family heirlooms at holiday get-togethers. For exhibiting photos and other files remotely, you can create a shared family folder on Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox. 

Many museums, historical societies, and other organizations may be interested in your personal and family records, too, including photos, letters, and other materials—even if your family members aren’t famous. Archivists and preservationists use items like those to capture details from different times and places. 

Besides the benefit of contributing to your community’s collective memory, an item donated to an organization can be professionally preserved and secured. The contents of the records will be made accessible to you, your family members, and researchers in future years.

You can start with a historical society in the community where your family lived or a museum that focuses on specific experiences, such as NMAACH.