What we can save today becomes the archive of tomorrow.

[hookleg]

I’m not sure if this has been asked before, but I can’t find it if it has.
I live in a village of about 1000 people, but only about 15 families have connections spanning 80 years or more.
I have a great concern that we are losing photos, buildings and memories without adequate records being made. I know there is the Record’s Office, but what I mean are the everyday things in our village/parish life. So often I see a skip outside the home of an elderly resident who has passed away and in go the photos because they are not wanted by the next generation. If it is possible to get them they have no names or dates on the backs and no one alive can remember who they are.
Should there be a dedicated person in each parish who takes responsibility for photographically recording changes to buildings, collects images from postcard collectors and makes voice recordings of older resident’s memories? I wish I had started doing this with my village 15 years earlier than I did. Unfortunately I am now too late to get this information from so many people who were born in the 1920s. Is there any record of village archivists?
 Also, so many agricultural buildings have been ‘barn converted’ or pulled down to make way for a new house!! Large gardens are being made into building plots and it is difficult to visualise the place as it was in 1911, the time of the last published census. Old photos of buildings help to put the lives of our ancestors into a context.
Has anyone got any ideas as how to address this?

[DavidG02]

Start now.

Take a photo of every building you can , ask people to stand in front and ask names. Send a newsletter to each house explaining what you wish to do.

I commend your thinking

[hookleg]

I have been doing this for the last 4 years, since I retired. I have now got a reasonable archive of over 300 photos of houses and people from 50 years ago and up to 150 years ago. I have made hard copies of the photos and postcards at A4 size on glossy photo paper. It is surprising how many people showed interest and offered their photos when I showed them at our village fete.
The problem with modern archive material is that most photos are taken with a digital camera and stored digitally. Nothing wrong with that, but it is nice to see hard copies so that one can pore over the details with friends. The photo next to my details shows one such view which was lost when that pub burnt down 40 years ago. I have been able to identify the person standing next to the horse and that picture is 110 years old.