Learn to Preserve Family Keepsakes in New Book

In every family, someone ends up with Mom’s and Dad’s “stuff” – a lifetime’s worth of old photos, letters, papers, and memorabilia packed into boxes, suitcases, closets, and trunks. In How to Archive Family Keepsakes: Learn How to Preserve Family Photos, Memorabilia and Genealogy Records (Family Tree Books, 2012), a new book by Denise May Levenick, family members will find help with organizing, preserving and sharing their family heirlooms.

“Inheriting the family treasures can a burden and a blessing,” says Denise. “How do you decide what to keep and what to throw away? How do you preserve what you want to keep? How can you share your legacy with your family?”

This book offers step-by-step advice for anyone who has inherited family treasures. Chapters cover preserving paper and photos, as well as archival storage techniques and resources for typical family memorabilia such quilts and textiles, military and scouting medals, childhood toys, and china. Numerous charts, checklists and worksheets help family archivists safely organize and store their inheritance.

Part two of the book focuses on digitizing photo and paper artifacts, with accompanying detailed instructions for scanning items and working with digital files. In part three, family historians will find ideas for using archival materials in their research and for organizing genealogy research, paperwork, and computer files. Family historians, genealogists, and anyone who has inherited family heirlooms or is downsizing to a smaller home will find practical help for organizing a family archive and preserving family history in How to Archive Family Keepsakes.

About the author

Denise May Levenick is the creator of The Family Curator genealogy blog (http://www.thefamilycurator.com) named one of the 40 Best Genealogy Blogs in 2010 and 2011 where she has written about her own family archive experiences since 2007. Denise inherited her first family archive from her grandmother – a trunk filled with photos, letters, documents, and lots of “miscellaneous stuff” and is now the caretaker of several family collections. She has adapted professional archival techniques to the family archive situation and shares her experiences in How to Archive Family Keepsakes. Denise is a frequent contributor to Family Tree Magazine and presents online webinars and conference seminars on a variety of archival subjects. She holds a Master’s degree in American and English Literature and is a former high school English and Journalism teacher. Denise lives in Pasadena, California.

About Family Tree Magazine

Family Tree Magazine is part of the Genealogy Community at F+W Media, Inc. (http://www.fwmedia.com), which also encompasses Family Tree University online courses and webinars (http://www.familytreeuniversity.com), genealogy books and the ShopFamilyTree.com (http://www.shopfamilytree.com) online store. These publications and products are devoted to providing engaging, easy-to-understand instruction that makes genealogy a hobby anyone can do.