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Building the Family History
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What Can I do? One of the first questions asked is, "what can I provide to build our family history?" The answer is simple: "anything that you would like to contribute." We are always looking for old photos, documents, artifacts, and are particularly interested in historical stories that help us understand the life and migration of our ancestors. |
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Questions & Answers Question: How much "stuff" can I contribute to this site? Answer: While we have a large amount of data already embedded on this site, we can actually add 10 times more data, in terms of photographs and stories. Most likely we will never exceed the storage capacity of this site, but if we did, we can automatically double the capacity for a small monthly cost. Question: Are you concerned about having too many people access this site? Answer: No. This is a business hosted site versus an individual hosted site. We went this direction so that we would not have any "congestion" issues. Hundreds of users could simultaneously access this site without any perceived congestion issues, however, since we have limited access to this site, we should never exceed the limit of simultaneous users on this site. Question: I have a lot of old photographs, but they are embedded in old scrapbooks...how can I make copies of these without pulling them out of the old scrapbooks? Answer: The easiest way is to find someone with an electronic document scanner, and lay the full page on the scanner. Scan (copy) the entire page, and continue do this until all pages are scanned. Copy these full pages to a disk and send the disk to us. We then take the entire page and "electronically cut" these photos from the page, much like the picture you see above. The quality of the photographs are not compromised...and we can "grow" these photographs to actual size. In some cases we also include the full scrapbook pages, along with the electronically "cut" photographs. The layout and comments are oftentimes more interesting than the actual photograph itself. If you don't have access to a scanner, you can send the scrapbook to us. After we complete the scans, they will be returned by special mail. Question: I see that Bill Smith family's photos are included on this site...can I do the same with my family? Answer: Yes. The site is designed to house our collective family histories. In order to make it easier for your family to access these items (photographs or stories) in the future, there will be a special hyperlink (e.g., Mike Smith Family) on the Home Page for you to "click on". Question: We have some artifacts that may be of interest, how do I provide to you? Answer: If it is an item, such as clock; please take a photo of the artifact and send it to us. We can electronically remove everything around the artifact (walls, floors, hands, etc.), so that only that item is viewed. If the item are old letters, certificates, etc., these can be scanned using an electronic scanner as well. Question: I have photographs but they have "cuts", have "aged", or have other types of damage. Should I include these? Answer: Yes. We have the ability to electronically repair documents and old photos. You most likely have seen these photographs already but were unaware that they were repaired. The most difficult repair is mold, and while difficult to repair, its possible to repair to acceptable viewing. Question: Is there someone that I can send photographs or scrapbooks to for scanning? Answer: Easiest thing to do is send everything to one place: Terry Smith, 1 Palmer Place, Flanders, New Jersey, 07836. Question: Is it possible to get copies of old photographs? Answer: Yes. We maintain the originals, which are normally copied at very high pixel quality. We convert these high pixel photographs to a lower quality picture for the web. We do this because it takes far less time to bring up a photo with 50,000 bytes vs. 1,000,000 bytes. You can copy any document or picture you see on this site, with your computer, also. Question: How do we get in touch with you regarding the site? Answer: Tim Smith (tfsmith@irishjohnsmith.com , or Terry Smith twsmith@irishjohnsmith.com Question: Can we get an email address with irishjohnsmith.com extension? Answer: Yes. Just let us know. We have around 180 IDs left that we can distribute.
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