Among my mom's things were a lot of old pictures. Some of the immediate family but also some of ancestors whom I never met. She had sorted them into groups, labeled them etc. I don't really want to keep all of them but feel somewhat guilty to throw them away. But they were her pictures, not mine. I think I'll go through and keep a few of her and my dad, but probably throw away the rest. Anyone else face this task?
The will send a DVD, but if you have an Amazon Prime account you have unlimited photo storage and they will transfer them for you. Or Google Photos, etc.
Then you can share the digital files with family members and trash the paper photos if no one really wants them.
For myself, I prefer the original photos. I can hold the photo, and know it was actually from the 1890's or whatever, and that my parents had actually held this photo. My great-grandfather was a photographer, so handling the actual photos that he had taken gives me a sense of being there.
I have tossed out original black/white photos, such as those real tiny ones from the 1940's that have pinking shear type cutting around the photo. Even with a magnifying glass, it is hard to view the photo.
Oh, most of my relatives of my age and older don't even own a computer. So actual photos are best for them, or photos that have been scanned.
We recently (1 week ago) moved to the Puerto Vallarta area. There was no reason to save pictures of 3rd cousins who I never met or pictures of my dead step father’s family. There was literally no one to pass them on to so in the garbage they went.
I will admit it does seem a bit sacrilegious to toss a photo. Makes you feel like you’re doing something “wrong”, Why? I don’t know. Or maybe “dishonoring” the person. But realistically speaking, the people in the pictures don’t know you’re ditching it in the garbage.
If if you can’t get past the guilt, maybe you could make a collage of “unknown” family and hang it in an out of the way place.