MYOG Scanfest 2011

There comes a time when you've got to make copies of the information that you've acquired and return the originals to the current owner.  I am referring to all of the photos that I've borrowed from my mother.  In particular is my grandma's photo album.  It contains over 300 photos within the dimensions of an 7" X 11" book.  I am scanning each page right now.

Where I lack photos of my father's parents, I do have photos of my mother's parents.  In fact, I have 80 pages worth of photos of my grandma, Dorothy Marie Borchers Flanagan.  Included on those pages are my great grandparents (Mary and Herbert Borchers), one of my great great grandmothers (Anna Borchers), and several photos of my grandpa (Richard J. Flanagan).  There are some other relatives within the photo album including aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Many of the photos in this book are not labeled but credit goes to my great grandfather for even starting this album.  According to one of his daughter's, Herbert Borchers, Sr. was the person who created this album.  He may not have placed all of the photos in the book later on in his life but it is clear that my grandma did continue on with the placement of photos that include my mother.

Leave it to a Borchers to want to save and preserve these precious memories.  That side of my family is big into our family genealogy.  It is rather ironic because my grandma (Dorothy) never kept much of anything.  She was more of a minimalist who kept everything clean and organized.  I recall cleaning out my grandparents house and the bulk of the items were in the kitchen (pots, pans, etc.), fine china, linens, and garage tools plus the furniture.  There were also a couple of small boxes of memories including albums.  Can I just say that there was no clutter or hoarding going on in that house.  My grandparents did live a rather simple, modest life and were very happy for that.  I think getting back to that would work well in my life.

Anyway, I have embarked on my scanning project since my mother would like most of her photos back.  She misses being able to pull out the album when a name or memory comes up.  I respect that for sure.  There are also some random unmounted photos that she would like to frame including her grandparents and parents.

Currently, I am on page 15 of the photo album working away at scanning it, saving the original scanned page to my removable hard drive, cropping the page in Photoshop, and uploading the pages to Shutterfly.  My intent is to make a book of these photos.   I'd also like to know who the people are in many of the photos.  I will be asking my aunts when I see them.

Here's a sample page from the book.

Dorothy Marie Borchers and her mother, Mary Borchers circa 1922

So "Mine, Yours', and the Other Guy's" Scanfest 2011 is on!