This is part of my week long checklist of spring cleaning tasks for my genealogy archives. Follow #genspringclean on Twitter, and share your updates too.
Monday – Air out the archives.
Open storage closet and remove all archival boxes to check for damp, mildew, or any signs of moisture. Consolidate storage materials as much as possible. Inventory contents of closet and keep with genealogy files; include a snapshot of the storage closet. Write a blog post about how you started your family archive, and where you keep everything. Post the photo of your family archive.
My archives certainly were in need of a visit. When I “founded” the archive in 2007 my main interest was preservation. Little by little I have ordered enough archival storage boxes to house the entire collection. I now have two very full cupboards containing most of the boxes, but the overflow is scattered in other locations. Today I brought everything together and made an inventory. I also placed a tempoary label on each box.
My next project will be to group similar items together and inventory the contents of each box. Here is my preliminary inventory:
1 box large documents, certificates
1 box financial papers, bank passbooks
1 box large photographs
1 box cabinet cards, snapshots
1 box rolled group photos, Photograph Album, 1915-1916
1 box negatives
1 large box newspapers
1 box newspaper clippings
1 box postcards
1 box personal artifacts, locks of hair
1 box misc. greeting cards
6 boxes personal correspondence
1 box genealogical correspondence
I first wrote about starting the Arline Allen Kinsel Papers Archive in Setting Up the System. This has been an evolving project, becoming more organized as I grow more familiar with the material.
Denise, I recently started reading your blog. I went to the beginning and have been working forward. I’ve been curious about AskSam and am wondering if you are still using it and if it has worked out well for you. I’m going to need to do something similar, once I get all of my family’s papers stored in a more archivally friendly manner.