If your family knows that you are the family genealogist, you are more than likely to inherit family photos. However, most of the time when you get these family photos, they are not labeled on the back with information of the people who are in the photo. If this is the case for you the thing you want to do is go through the photos and label them with the people that you know in the photos. It is important to try to purchase an archival safe pen, which can be purchased in a scrapbook store, to label your photos. When labeling the photos it is important to at least write the first and last names of everyone in the photo. When you are writing a females name it is ideal to write their maiden name in parenthesis and then their married last name after the maiden name. If the approximate date and place the photo was taken, that can also be helpful to add that to the back of the photo also. If there is pictures without any people in the photo try to see if you can find an older relative that may know some history of the photo. For example if the picture is of a house but you don’t recognize it, it is best to try to gain information on why this photo is important to the family. When putting these photos in albums for organization, make sure to use acid free pages so that the photos stay nice for many years. Acid pages can sometimes eat at the photos over time that they are in the albums.
