Scannathon Times Five

Twice this week I spent more than 8 hours at WalMart scanning photos on their wonderful scanners. I leave as early as possible as they open at nine. I really knew my mom had lots of photos but I had no idea how many. I scanned for hours and hours and posted about it a few months ago with my eldest Princess working on my mothers photos and one of my other daughters.

This week, I took Princess number two and had her start on her photos. Tuesday, she scanned 1,125 pictures onto two discs and the cost was under $7. She is about half finished with her pictures. I had no idea I have taken that many photos but actually, many of them were her photos from high school before the digital camera.

I worked only on one box both days this week. It was photos from my mothers high school and college days and the year before she married my father. I scanned 588 photos on Tuesday making one disc.

Today, I scanned on two machines as my Princess was busy. I wanted to finish the box but needed to keep the photos in order so on one machine I scanned from the back forward and on the second machine, I scanned from the front back. I met somewhere in the middle. My mother was a model for years so she had tons of "proof" shots and different outfits and poses. I was there all day and scanned 583 on one machine and almost 400 on the other machine getting 2 discs and the free thumbnails all for under $7.

It is hard to believe that there was over 1,500 pictures in that box. It did have a few baby photos but most were from 16 to age 22. Here is one of her as a baby. I am hoping that after 75 years the copyright on the photo has expired so I don't get in trouble for using this. She sure is cute!

I had to call my sister and share that I had finished. Just organizing that box by date took me literally 24 hours sitting on the floor matching outfits, marks on the photos, etc to date the pictures and put them together in order.

A few summers ago, I spent two months organizing my family history from boxes and boxes that we took from my mothers. We did a quick sort at her house and then put them on pallets at my brother warehouse. When he moved, we needed to move them so my sister and I spent a week sorting 6 pallets full of stuff down to about 40 banana boxes.

After that, I lived at my sisters and spent the two months sorting everything by groups such as; side of family, individual person, extended family and in my mothers case by year until her busy years modeling and then I did it by month and country. I put it all in plastic bins in similar order and it has been there until now.

I figure if I take a bin at a time, scan and organize it as I can, everyone will have the information and pictures in a simple disc rather than everyone getting a few pieces and then having to store it or making copies etc.

I have 15 bins to go and about 1000 cassette and reel to reel tapes to go! Anyone have a few months off they want to donate? At this rate, I may finish before I die but probably not before she does. I hope I leave my stuff more organized for my children.

It was my mothers birthday this week and I know she will be excited to see all the photos scanned so it is worth it~