Invite Me to Speak at Your Event
Denise May Levenick, aka The Family Curator, is an author and speaker specializing in topics about preserving family heirlooms and using home sources for genealogy research. From digitizing to delving deeper into archives, each lecture is illustrated with real-life examples and photos.
I would love to share my passion for preserving family stories and keepsakes with your group. View the list of Topics below, and Contact Me for further information or booking.
Preserving and Digitizing
Preserving the Past: Archiving and Digitizing Your Family Keepsakes
Overview of preservation and digitization techniques for family historians. Includes best practices for archival storage and fundamentals of digitization and scanning family history papers.
Focus: Preservation and Digitization
Audience: All
Duration: One hour with Q&A
Preservation
Dirty Pictures: Save Your Family Photos from Ruin
Dirty negatives, smudged old photos, curled panorama pictures, and photos stuck in sticky albums. Learn how to rescue your family photos, albums, and scrapbooks from the ravages of time.
Focus: Preservation and Conservation
Audience: All
Duration: One hour with Q&A
Caring for Keepsakes: Top 10 Family Treasures
Learn how to care for the Top Ten Family Treasures from photographs to furniture, from love letters to lockets, clocks, and Bibles. Learn to identify common hazards such as silverfish, mold, acid migration, and how to set up a simple Home Archive to safely store your heirlooms.
Focus: Preservation
Audience: All
Duration: One hour with Q&A
The Frugal Curator
Archival storage doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Discover practical DIY (Do-It-Yourself) solutions that will save you time and money as you organize and store your family treasures. See how to make a family history time capsule for your next family reunion or event.
Focus: Preservation and Sharing
Audience: All
Duration: One hour with Q&A
Digitizing and Technology
Smart-phoneography for Genealogists
Learn to do MORE with your Android or iOS smarphone. Capture great images, edit and enhance your photos, learn how to backup and archive your content, and create and share photos, videos, and video stories.
Focus: Mobile Technology and Digitizing (scanning and photographing)
Audience: All
Duration: One hour with Q&A
How to Scan an Elephant: Digitize Your Family History
Go beyond the flatbed scanner to digitize awkward artifacts and oversize items. Discover apps, accessories, and expert tips to get better results from traditional scanners, digital cameras, and mobile devices.
Focus: Digitizing (scanning and photographing)
Audience: All
Duration: One hour with Q&A
The Paper-Less Genealogist
Simple strategies to break the paper habit, file less paper, and organize what you keep. Learn the best scanner for your needs, basic scanner settings for genealogists, file-naming for easy retrieval, and baby steps to help you move toward managing less paper.
Focus: Digitizing and Organizing Computer Files
Audience: All
Duration: One hour with Q&A
Research Methodology
Secrets in the Attic: Break Down Brick Walls With Home Sources
Solve genealogical mysteries with clues in family sources. Photos and examples show where to find hidden details about your ancestors’ lives in the things they left behind, including old documents and letters, and unidentified photographs.
Focus: Research, Methodology
Audience: All
Duration: One hour with Q&A
Workshops
Paper or Plastic? Preserving Keepsakes Workshop
Bring your questions to this hands-on workshop and learn best practices for preserving your family keepsakes. Try out storage options; select the best containers for your artifacts; hands-on practice making archival enclosures.
Focus: Preservation
Audience: All
Duration: 90 to 120 minutes
Heirloom Roadshow
Submit your keepsake preservation challenges to The Family Curator prior to the event for a chance to be featured in this interactive presentation where you’ll learn the best way to rescue, preserve, and archive your family heirlooms.
Focus: Preservation
Audience: All
Duration: 60 to 90 minutes
