I would generally recommend not planning to dispose of an original document, even after digitizing it. We can inherit them or a family member shares for us to copy and return, we can order them in the course of doing our family history, or someone can digitize and share it with us. We acquire original documents in a variety of ways. There is much to be said about the peace of mind that comes with a bit of preparation. I will admit up front that it can be time consuming, but I worry much less about the prospects of a nasty hurricane raking across my property than I use to. I’ve done a fair amount of studying and reading to develop my method. What I am going to recommend is how I’ve handled, or am in the process of handling, my various documents, photographs and tangible/material items. For the next two posts, I am going to give you some suggestions for tackling this important part of being a family historian. Having your important documents as safe as possible and organized so if you need to evacuate you can grab and pack into the car, is critical to ensuring that you don’t lose the information that these documents contain. And if you don’t live down here, you still live somewhere that nature occasionally targets with wind, rain, snow, tornadoes or earthquakes. Each year we keep our eyes and ears on the Atlantic and the Gulf in case we need to step up our preparations for a direct or glancing blow from a hurricane or a tropical storm.

And if you are a reader situated in the Florida panhandle or in south Alabama, you know we are officially into hurricane season 2022.

Whether you read this blog because you are a Florida Panhandle history buff or a family genealogist who understands the importance of putting your ancestors into the context of the history they experienced, my guess is you have some documents, photographs or maybe material items that you have collected or you inherited from someone in your family.

Handheld document scanner for genealogy