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Tag: podcasts (Page 1 of 4)

Scanning Family Scrapbooks

December 28, 2020 /
Old photos remounted on photo-safe paper

So far in my family genealogical endeavors, I’ve scanned over 3500 photos, including old ones on tin. Most of the photos I’ve scanned have been loose in shoe boxes and the like, but sometimes I run across an old scrapbook.

From my research, these scrapbooks usually are not the best way to preserve the photos they contain, so here are some steps I follow to better protect those images.

Take pictures of the original book

Before I start removing pictures from the original scrapbook, I’ll take pictures of it, cover-to-cover, page-by-page. For one, it’s nice to simply have a record of how the images were originally stored and ordered. Furthermore, once you start removing each photo, it may be helpful to have a reminder of what page each image came from and what other images surrounded it.

Take care removing the photos

Removing your photos might be tricky, depending on how they were mounted to the original scrapbook. I have found a standard business card a helpful tool in the effort where I slide it beneath an open edge and very carefully use it to pry the picture free. Check with the Internet, too, as you may find other helpful advice.

Scan and document each photo

In the past, I’ve discussed how I scan and document family slides. With photos, my approach is much the same:

File format? I’ve toyed with preserving my images as PNG or even TIF, but I predominantly stick to JPG, more for concern about disk space than anything else.

Naming convention? Long ago, I devised a naming convention that includes a person’s name along with a number in case I have multiple pictures of the same individual. For example, the file smith, john4.jpg would indicate the fourth picture I have of John Smith. This formula gets more complicated when there is more than one individual in a picture, which may make for a decent future blog post.

Documentation? For better or worse, I’m still quite “old school” when it comes to documenting my images, authoring something akin to a “read me” file in the folders where I store my files–I’ve talked a little about that approach in two previous posts. Long ago, I recall Leo Laporte recommending the book Digital Asset Management for Photographers for tips on photo storage and organization. That may be worth checking out as well as this old podcast episode.

Regardless, when documenting photos, I try my best to answer the Five Ws. If you’re lucky, your ancestor may have had the forethought to write some of those answers on the back of the photo (which is another reason to be able to gently remove the images from the original pages).

Remount the photos in a photo-safe scrapbook

Once you’ve scanned and documented your photos, you could pack them away in a photo-safe container. However, how about sharing them with the rest of your family in a photo-safe scrapbook?

I buy acid-free cardstock paper on which I mount the photos, slide them into clear, acid-free sleeves with holes for a three ring binder, and snap the pages into a nice, three ring binder. To mount the pictures to the paper, I use self-adhesive photo corner stickers.

Before I start mounting images to paper, I try to do a little planning. It may make sense to mount the pictures in the same order as they were in the original book. However, it might make more sense to group pictures by person–if you have several pictures of Aunt Sally, it might make sense to group all those together on a page or two labeled “Aunt Sally”. It might make sense to group pictures by event–if you have multiple pictures of a Christmas in 1955, it might make sense to keep them together on a page called “Christmas 1955”.

While the self-adhesive photo corners do make it much easier to remove your pictures and look on the back for any notes, I try to add labels of any important information below each photo, so that it shouldn’t be necessary to pull out a given picture just to see what may be written on the back. You can check out the picture I took of one of my scrapbook pages (above) for details. One change I’ve made since I put that page together, though, is that I now use an easier-to-read font like Arial for my labels.

Include your pictures of the original scrapbook

Remember how I recommended taking a picture of the original scrapbook? I like to include copies of those pictures in a page or two of the new version, especially if the original had a neat look to it. You may not want to include every picture: maybe just the covers and an example page.

Include a cover page

Finally, it may be helpful to include a printed cover page in the new scrapbook describing how you migrated the photos from the original scrapbook to the new, safer version. Include the date(s) you did the work and your own contact information, so family knows who did this great work and who has electronic copies of the images.

Good idea for those loose pictures, too

While it might not be feasible to make scrapbooks for all your loose photos, your family might be well served by mounting many of your loose pictures in photo-safe scrapbooks, too.

So, how are you dealing with your old scrapbooks and loose photos? I’d love you hear your thoughts and suggestions!

Is Third Normal Form obsolete?

November 21, 2019 /

On a recent episode of .NET Rocks, hosts Carl and Richard along with guest Julie Lerman have an interesting discussion–right at the beginning of the episode–on how important it is these days to normalize the table structures in your relational databases.

Richard goes so far as to suggest it might be an “obsolete concept.” That it is more important to persist “the truth at the time.”

“I was taught Third Normal Form decades ago by C.J. Date…and so it’s been a real struggle to say it’s my instinct and I think it’s wrong!”

Richard Campbell, 14 November 2019

Personally, I’ve felt a little guilty contemplating denormalized database solutions to solve my problems on different occasions. It’s certainly a relief to know that a) I’m not alone and b) denormalized solutions might be more the norm than the exception.

Get your documentation together

February 7, 2019 /

Almost seven years ago, I listened to an episode of the Survival Podcast that I still think about from time to time–an episode on estate planning. Many years later, I finally listened to it again so I could take some notes on the important documents attorney Mark Matthews (the individual interviewed in the podcast) considered important documents to create. I’m sure the law has changed much since then, but I suspect most of these documents are still important, so I will write my notes out here.

Financial Power of Attorney

A Financial Power of Attorney is a document that grants another person–an “agent”–the ability to act as you in financial matters. If you in some way become incapacitated, your agent will have access to your money to pay your bills and other expenses. One fear with a power of attorney is that the agent will simply abscond with your assets. By law, though, your agent must act as a fiduciary: someone who has a duty of care and loyalty to you. Another fear is that once the power of attorney is signed, the agent immediately inherits that power. That’s not necessarily the case: yes, you can craft the document to take effect immediately, but, alternatively, you can state that the document goes into effect only when you become “incapacitated” or “incompetent” or even “detained under duress” (if you were kidnapped abroad or jailed for a prolonged period of time).

Advanced Medical Directive

The second important document Mr. Matthews mentioned is the Advanced Medical Directive. Two important components of the Advanced Medical Directive are the Healthcare Power of Attorney and the Living Will. The Healthcare Power of Attorney designates an individual to act on your behalf in matters of healthcare. One important responsibility of this individual is managing and distributing your medical records to appropriate third parties. As obtaining medical information from doctors and hospitals can be difficult, this provision can be pretty important.

The Living Will clearly establishes how you wish to be treated should you succumb to certain medical conditions that leave you, say, living only by the grace of a machine. A Living Will makes it clear to your surviving family how they should deal with you in those situations–“pull the plug” or not and under what conditions. There is no guessing “what Mom would have wanted” and, therefore, no need for guilt or quarrel among the surviving family.

Traditional Will

Mr. Matthews mentioned Wills only after a lengthy discussion of the Financial Power of Attorney and Advanced Medical Directives, so he would seem to value those two documents above the third. Wills address a variety of concerns:

  • Who inherits what assets
  • Where minor children are concerned, who becomes the guardians of these children
  • Who is the Executor–the person in charge of dispensing the Will

Apparently, with the execution of a Will, a bond must sometimes be paid. It seems your Will can address some of those concerns–whether or not the executor must post a bond, whether or not a bondsman must be hired. Mr. Matthews called that “surety”.

Although a lot of people have drawn up wills, do your survivors know of your will and even where it is? Consider these questions:

  • Have you told your executor that he or she is your executor?
  • Does your executor know where your will is?
  • If your will is in your safe deposit box, will your survivors be able to access it after your gone?

In short, you may have a Will, but if no one knows about it or can get a copy of it, you don’t have an “executable plan.” [Cue the old tree-falling-in-the-woods joke.]

Memorandum of Distribution

A fear many have with traditional wills is that when they draw up the will, they may have a particular way they want to divvy up their assets among their survivors; however, years later, they may decide they want to change that distribution arrangement. Does that mean they have to tear up their current wills and pay more legal fees to draw up a new onewith their new distribution arrangements? In some States, the answer is “no.” Some States like Virginia honor a separate Memorandum of Distribution of Tangible Personal Property. If your State honors such a document, you can draw up a will that references this separate document that details how you wish your assets to be distributed. Then, on your own, you can write up your own Memorandum of Distribution without additional legal fees. If, later, you decide to change that distribution, you can tear up your current Memorandum and write a new one.

Bequeath the gift of Peace

One insight here from Mr. Matthews I found valuable was dispelling the attitude of just “splitting your assets X ways between your X kids” (fill in X for the number of children you have). It seems to me that, in addition to distributing your assets to your survivors according to your wishes and in the most tax efficient manner possible, you should also aim to leave your family in as much peace as possible. This means drawing up proper Advanced Medical Directives so that you can absolve your survivors of any guilt and fear they might have over making those decisions for you. This also means being very specific regarding the divvying up of your assets. Stating vaguely that your assets should be evenly split among your heirs will likely result in your heirs fighting over who gets your boat or vintage car or baseball card collection. Don’t be vague–be specific.

HIPAA Authorization Document

A HIPAA Authorization Document is a “short form” release of information authorization that your healthcare power of attorney agent can use to gather and distribute your medical information without otherwise having to fax around your entire Advanced Medical Directive. This saves time and paper, but more importantly, it preserves your privacy in that you’re only sending around this short authorization form and not your full Advanced Medical Directive with your Living Will and all those personal details contained therein.

Trusts

Everyone says “trusts are not for everyone,” but it seems to me that trusts should probably be for many people–just see my next section on Estate Taxes. Apparently, there are many flavors of trusts. Mr. Matthews discussed three:

  • Revocable Living Trust: the Revocable Living Trust is a common form of a trust. This is a trust that you set up during your lifetime and can change it at will. With this instrument, you can move your money into the trust then write up instructions to, say, incrementally distribute your funds to your children over time. You can even include instructions to have the funds of the trust invested in something that will allow the funds to grow as they sit and wait to be distributed.
  • Marital Trust: this is a trust that you establish with your spouse. If you die before your spouse and you have funds that will be subject to estate taxes, instead of passing those funds to your spouse and subjecting him or her to those estate taxes, you can instead shelter those funds in a Marital Trust.
  • Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust: this is a trust that owns a life insurance policy on you and serves as another avenue of sheltering money away from the brutal federal estate taxes.

Estate Taxes

This interview occurred in 2012. At that time, US federal law exempted the first five million dollars of a person’s estate from the estate tax. In 2013, the law changed: only the first one million dollars of a person’s estate was exempt from being taxed. In 2012, the estate tax was 35%. According to Mr. Matthews, in 2013, the tax was raised to 55%. [side note: the law may have changed again since the interview but, today, it would seem that the tax rate is 40% and the exemption seems to now be at $11 million].

The IRS has their own formula for determining what parts of your estate are subject to estate taxes. This includes your money and your house, among other assets, but, interestingly, it also includes your life insurance policies. So, if you have a one million dollar life insurance policy, that’s one million dollars subject to estate taxes, even though life insurance payouts themselves are not subject to income taxes. Go figure. So, it’s not unimaginable that a thoughtful, frugal, middle class family might bump up against or exceed the IRS’s exemption. In such instances, a trust can help soften the kick-in-the-face that is the US government. One memorable line from the interview: many heirs are “asset rich but cash poor.” If you think a portion of your estate might be subject to estate taxes, try not to leave your heirs with that bill.

Finding a good Estate Planner

So how do you go about finding an estate planner as thoughtful as Mr. Matthews?

  • You can check with your State bar association as they will be able to refer estate planning attorneys
  • Mr. Matthews recommended checking with Wealth Counsel, an organization he belongs to, for referrals
  • In general, as you converse with your estate planner, make careful observation: is your attorney truly listening to you? Is he restating your goals back to you? Is he taking notes?

Get on it

I am quite derelict in getting these documents drawn up myself, but I’m hopeful I can get at least a few of these done this year. In addition to listening to this particular podcast some time ago, I also learned about the site Get Your Sh*t Together, a site dedicated to just these tasks. I’ve not used the site–don’t know if it’s free or not–but it might be worth checking out.

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