Doing my family research of my family in Rincon, Puerto Rico has been a passion of mine for a very long time.
I want to share with you what I have used to capture information and photos to share with my family.

Research tools

All research is writing and collecting information. Having a career in data technology has helped me use my technical skills, passion for research, and family history and stories.

Family Tree Maker

I have used the Family Tree Maker software since the early 1990s, first on a Windows PC and most recently on my Mac.
I have written all my notes and copies of documents and stored them in the document. Over the years, I have had some “hiccups” with software upgrades. So, I used to update my private Ancestry.com trees. This way, I have a backup online and when I want to share with specific family members.

Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org

Once census record images started to be digitized in the early 2000s, I could scan through the images from home online rather than spending days at the US National Archives in Seattle or the local LDS Family History Center, manually viewing microfilm rolls looking for family.
I am very grateful to the Church of Latter-day Saints for scanning and preserving so all family history buffs can find pieces of our ancestors’ past.

Why do they do this? Check out the Harvard Divinity Article: Mormons, Genetics, & Digitized Data article.

Because Mormons are passionate about researching family history for religious reasons, I am able to search for records on Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org from Family Tree Maker.

I am careful to verify all the information I have found to make sure they are primary sources as well as validating family “stories” with facts.
I am also very mindful of privacy and ethical considerations when sharing sensitive family details to anyone.

Writing

Now that I have a lot of information on my family, I am starting my journey of writing some family history from the records and the stories of my family. Tools I use to help me write include Grammarly, Microsoft Word, and OneNote.

I am also leveraging Family Book Creator to output drafts of a “family book” to edit.

Photos

I have organized most of my family photos for the last few years by scanning, categorizing, and adding original dates and names to faces using various tools. I aim to digitize and share them with family to pass down the legacy to their families.

Photo Scanner

Last year, I purchased the Plustek Photo Scanner to scan the numerous family photos my husband recently inherited.
I save my photos to my local and cloud drive (I use iCloud) and upload them to Shutterfly.com to share with family.
I am fortunate to have scanned many photos from my mom with the help of my sister and brothers back in 2018. But this scanner has helped me scan newly found “old” photos.

Canva

Most recently, besides taking photos or scanning them, I created a calendar for photo books using Canva.
I shared the album with some family.
In 2025, I will create the site so interested family members can purchase the calendar to offset the publishing costs.

Adobe Lightroom Classic

Using Adobe Lightroom, I organized all my digital images into folders and annotated family photos with names. This helped me search photos of specific family members, compiling the images to display on their birthday month. This will also help me organize photos into family groups and share with family.

Photo Correcting

I am not gifted with photography or image-correcting skills. I do some basic photo editing with various Adobe products, like Photoshop, but I needed more help.
I discovered a photo editing app on MyHeritage.com called Reimagine. It uses artificial intelligence to auto-correct images.
It helps with some photos, but in some cases, the app got so creative that I did not recognize the real photo in the picture.

At some point, I will have some key photos professionally restored, like the photos above of my maternal grandparents from the 1940s/1950s.

Perseverance and Creativity

All these tools help me in my journey of cataloging and researching my family history, but the key tool I and we all have is to be persistent in our journey and commanding creativity to write and share the family history.

The current road block I am breaking through is writing the stories of my ancestors in sensitive, clear and truthful manner.
All families have “secrets” that they are ashamed or embarrassed about. But family history is about how as people and generations survived and grow from the painful experiences to joyful ones.
I found some interesting information from the free online RootsTech 2024 conference that has inspired my current writing.

• Research to Draft: Rapidly Writing Your Ancestor’s Story
• Writing Your Ancestor’s Story, Part 1 of 2 Peggy L. Lauritzen
• Writing Your Ancestor’s Story, Part 2 of 2 Peggy L. Lauritzen
  
  

Hope this helps you with preserving your family history!