This blog entry has stuck in my head for the last 6 months or so as I trudge through the extensive colletions family members have and figure out how to sort it all out. Some things are heirloom pictures and some things are heirlooms themselves!

The first thing I found is that you really need to define a goal, because the solutions depend on it. Is it 1) to preserve the photos and the identities of the people in the pictures? (AND attempt to identify the ones you DON’T know) 2) Do you have a larger interest in genealogy so you are interested in the RELATIONSHIPS among the people in the pictures and the among the pictures? 3) Do you have big hairy audacious goals of 1, 2 as well as 3) documenting the pictures themselves as heirlooms and every detail of the photo (location where was it taken, when it was taken, what photography studio, why was it taken) as well as every detail you can about the people in the pictures (a depth and bredth that moves you from genealogist to family historian).

I find myself not bitten but smitten with the genealogy bug! I fall in category 3, and unfortunately I have yet to find a satisfactory solution. I started on ancestry.com and it works well in that I can assign the photo to a person in my tree AND I can use rectangle “mouse-over notes” to specifically identify who is in the picture. Through the social networking that ancestry.com supports I have been able to identify some previously unknown people through other people who have connected to my tree. Even if there was an automated face recognition software out there, it will give Type I and Type II errors. You have to validate its solutions anyway and the people doing the research have the details and facts to help do that. The problem lies in some photos I have uploaded that are people not yet identified. Ancestry.com also limited the files to 10MB, not exactly the size needed to accomplish goal #1 like bpTech has shown. But overall, I have found it extremely rewarding because people who are serious enough to shell out the fairly substantial ancestry.com fee are serious enough to search for the answers.

Genealogy software solutions do a pretty good job of #1 and #2. Local genealogy software can link to pictures on your harddrive or expanded harddrive OR to directly scan into the software. They provide fairly nice linear relationships. I want the genealogy software solutions to go farther and track facts about neighbors/friends, heirlooms, photos as heirlooms, and homes (like architect, when it was built, what it cost, etc)

I am struggling because I want more complex relationships than the genealogy software is providing. Viewing the picture not just as a representation of the individuals in linear relationships, but the complex relationships of the photos as objects separate from the individuals and other objects in them.

Needless to say, I think I will need to cobble together several solutions to meet all goals 100% :)