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Archive for the ‘Family History’ Category

A Hidden Gem for Puerto Rican Genealogy: The Archivo Digital de Aguadilla

Posted in Family History, Puerto Rican Ancestry, Sociedad Puertorriqueña de Genealogia, Uncategorized, tagged , , on April 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »

If you have roots in the western side of Puerto Rico, chances are you’ve hit a wall trying to find records from the early 1800s. FamilySearch has a lot, but not everything. And some of the best records are sitting in places most people never think to look.

This week, someone in the Facebook group Sociedad Puertorriqueña de Genealogía shared something I hadn’t seen before: the Archivo Digital de Aguadilla. Free, online, and full of parish records going back to 1780. I want to walk you through what it is and how to use it, especially if you’re just getting started.

What Is the Archivo Digital de Aguadilla?

The Archivo Digital de Aguadilla is a free online archive of historical documents from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. It was created by Haydée E. Reichard, and the heart of the collection is the Libros Parroquiales (Parish Books) from 1780 to 1843: baptism, marriage, and burial records from the parishes of Aguada and San Carlos Borromeo.

These are the kinds of records that can take you back generations before civil registration began in 1885. If your family is from the western part of the island, this archive is worth knowing.

The records have been alphabetized by surname, which makes it much easier to navigate than flipping through unindexed handwritten pages.

Browsing the Site

When you land on the site, you’ll notice it’s primarily in Spanish. Don’t let that stop you. Tools like Google Translate can help you read the navigation and any descriptions.

The site is organized into categories you can explore from the footer or sidebar:

  • Libros Parroquiales: Parish birth, marriage, and death records (this is the main collection)
  • Genealogía: Genealogical collections
  • Documentos Nuevos: Newly added documents
  • Ensayos: Historical essays
  • Other collections from researchers like Herman Reichard, Ramón Añeses, and Jaime González

Click the hamburger menu (the three lines, ≡) in the top right corner to access all sections, including Noticias, which is where they announce new additions to the archive.

How to Search

Here’s where it gets a little different from what you might be used to on FamilySearch or Ancestry. There are two ways to search, and the one that looks most obvious is actually the less useful one.

Option 1: Site-Wide Keyword Search
Go to “Buscar en Archivo Digital” in the main menu, type a surname, and click Buscar. This searches across all posts and pages on the site.

Option 2: External Archive Database (Better for Parish Records)
On that same search page, look for a link that says “BUSQUEDA”. Click it. This takes you to an external tool at archivonacional.com where the full Haydée Reichard collection is searchable as a proper database. This is the better option for finding a specific person.

Using the Parish Book Viewer

When you open one of the parish book entries, an embedded document viewer loads right on the page. It looks like this:

Inside the viewer, the records are sorted alphabetically by surname. You have a few options for navigating:

  • Use the Índice (Index) button to pull up a list of surnames and jump directly to the one you’re looking for.
  • Use “Otros Libros” (Other Books) to switch between the available volumes: baptisms, marriages, and death records across different years.

My Experience: The Search That Didn’t Work

I want to save you some frustration. When I first tried the site, I searched for “Acevedo” using the viewer’s built-in search bar. It came back with no results at all.

Search bar displaying the name 'Acevedo' with options for 'Exact match' and 'Whole words', indicating no results found.

I almost moved on. But I tried the Índice instead (again, click the hamburger menu ≡), and there it was: a long list of Acevedos.

A list of names and titles from a historical document dated November 19, 1814 to August 20, 1818, possibly related to individuals of 'blancos y pardos'.

The lesson: do not expect this search to work like FamilySearch or Ancestry.

  • Use the Índice.
  • Browse by letter.

The site was built differently, and once you understand that, it makes much more sense.

What You’ll Find Once You Get There

Once you locate a record, you’ll be reading handwritten text from the 1700s and 1800s. That’s both exciting and a little intimidating if you’ve never done it before.

There are no typed summaries or extracted data fields. You’re reading the original handwriting directly. A few things to keep in mind:

  • If you’re comfortable reading cursive in English, you can figure out many of the letters.
  • AI tools can help you get started with a transcription, but always verify what any AI produces by comparing it word-by-word to the original image. AI makes mistakes with old and new handwriting!
  • If you want to build your skills, the Spanish Paleography Digital Teaching and Learning Tool is a wonderful free resource designed to help people read early modern Spanish handwriting from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

A Few Honest Limitations

This archive is a labor of love, not a commercial database. That means:

  • The collection is not exhaustive. Some years and volumes are missing because access to the originals was limited.
  • The site is primarily in Spanish.
  • The search tool inside the viewer does not behave like a modern search engine. Use the Índice.

For related Puerto Rico records, the Enlaces page on the site links to the broader Archivo Digital Nacional de Puerto Rico at adnpr.net, which is worth bookmarking.

One More Resource Worth Knowing

The same Facebook group also shared another resource this week: Rutgers University’s Digital Library of Historians of Puerto Rico.

This is a digital collection of books by Puerto Rican historians, including Francisco Moscoso, Fernando Picó, David Stark, and Francisco Scarcano.

If you’re not fluent in Spanish, having these books in digital form means you can use Google Translate to read them or use them as a reason to start learning Spanish. Context matters in genealogy, and these historians can help you understand what life was like for your ancestors.

Start Looking

If your family is from Aguadilla or the surrounding area, or if you simply want to push further back than civil records allow, give the Archivo Digital de Aguadilla a try. Go to the site, click on a book, and look through the index. You might be surprised what comes up.

And if you find something, share it with the community. That’s how we all move forward.

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Funeral Cards and Puerto Rican Genealogy Research

Posted in Ancestry Research, Family History, Puerto Rican Ancestry, Uncategorized, tagged , , , on March 13, 2026| Leave a Comment »

A few years ago, my Tia Vidalina gave me a box of Funeral Cards (“tarjetas de recuerdo“) from funerals she had attended over the years. Each card offered prayers and simple artwork to remember a loved one — cousins, uncles, aunts, parents, grandparents, and many others I don’t recognize but who mattered deeply to someone. To help keep this tradition alive, I returned the box with an album so she could store the collection properly. It’s a keepsake she may one day donate to a local historical society.

I scanned every card, and today I uploaded it to PuertoRicanGenealogy.org, where they can help other researchers trace their own Puerto Rican family histories. There are only 154 cards, but hopefully they will help others with genealogy research.

How the Dead Are Remembered in Rincón

In my family’s hometown of Rincón, Puerto Rico, deaths are not announced through newspaper obituaries. There are several reasons for this — the absence of a local paper, but more fundamentally, because earlier generations could not read. Both of my grandfathers were illiterate. My maternal grandfather was born in 1892 and died in 1973; my paternal grandfather was born in 1889 and died in 1985. They were farmers, and for them, education was a luxury unnecessary given the more immediate demands of tilling the soil and feeding a family.

To this day, a car with a loudspeaker drives through the streets of Rincón to announce deaths and share funeral details.

Funeral Cards are another way people preserve the memory of the dead. A card is printed for each person who passed, often with a prayer and a small image. People kept them, sometimes with a candle burning nearby, as a way to pray for the soul of the deceased or simply to hold them close. Tia Vidalina’s box represents decades of that practice — a physical archive of loss and remembrance that might otherwise disappear.

My First Wake: Cangelo Vargas, December 1968

My first experience of death and mourning came in December 1968. The head of the Vargas family in New York was my Tio Canjo — Cangelo Vargas — the oldest son of my paternal grandfather. He died on December 23, 1968, from a blood clot following surgery. He was the first person I lost.

Cangelo had come to New York with his cousins in the late 1930s. Work was scarce in Puerto Rico during the Depression years, and he took whatever jobs he could find — waiter, cook, hotel work of every kind — sending most of his earnings back to Rincón to support his father, brothers, sisters, and stepmother. In 1942, Cangelo and his cousins joined the Army after the United States entered World War II. After the war, he used the networks he had built in New York to help his brothers, sisters, and many cousins find work in the city, as employment on the island remained difficult to come by.

When Cangelo died, his body was sent back to Rincón so his father could bury him. No parent should face that, but life does not ask permission.

The Novena in Washington Heights

At the time, our family lived at 565 West 171st Street in Manhattan, and most of our Vargas and Valentín relatives were within a few blocks. That proximity made our community unusually tight, and it showed most clearly in grief.

Most families could not afford to travel to Puerto Rico for the funeral, so we held a novena — a nine-night rosary prayer — in New York. A novena was still done in Puerto Rico, but for families away from the rituals of saying goodbye to a loved one, this was the only affordable option. These gatherings were somber, but they also gave us children something we needed: the presence of family, a sense of continuity, and even, in moments, joy. Food was shared, stories were told, and the apartment was filled with people who loved the same man.

I don’t attend church regularly anymore, but I’ve never stopped finding the rosary useful. It functions for me as meditation — a ritual that quiets the mind and, when I’m far from family in Seattle, closes some of the distance. Catholic Mass in Seattle is not what I grew up with in New York. The music is different. The community is different. I miss what I knew.

Sharing What Survives

The cards I scanned from Tia Vidalina’s collection are now part of the archive at PuertoRicanGenealogy.org – Tools – Funeral Cards. Many of them belong to people I can identify within my own family tree. Others remain unknown to me, but they were known to someone, and that matters.

If you have a Funeral/Memory/etc/ Card you’d like to contribute, you can email puertoricangenealogygroup@gmail.com, and I will add it to our site’s database. If not, add it to a FindAGrave memorial page. I added one for Tio Canjo: Cangelo Vargas — FindAGrave Memorial.

These cards are small things, but they survive when people do not. I hope this collection helps someone find who they’ve been looking for.

https://puertoricangenealogy.org/funeral-cards

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Discover. Connect. Preserve.

Posted in Family History, Puerto Rican Ancestry, Sociedad Puertorriqueña de Genealogia on October 24, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I’m attending the genealogy conference organized by the Sociedad Puertorriqueña de Genealogía in San Juan (October 23-26). I have greatly enjoyed the camaraderie among attendees and presenters, especially under the leadership of Dra. Norma A. Feliberti Aldebol and Sra. Rosana Medina Peraza, president and vice president of the Sociedad. You can explore the conference overview here: genealogiapr.com Centro de Información “Haciendo las Américas – Resúmenes de Conferencias”.

I will post my experiences after the conference.

The event continues for a few more days. I want to reach out to my community here to continue this sense of community online. I’m inviting genealogists who feel more comfortable in English, Spanish, or a mix of both to join another venue.
Earlier this year, I founded a Zoom-based group: the Puerto Rican Genealogy Group.

Are you ready to explore your Puerto Rican roots? Join us—a warm, grassroots community dedicated to helping everyone, from newcomers to seasoned researchers, dive into their ancestry. Bring your questions, your discoveries, and your curiosity.

What we offer:

  • Monthly online meetings (via Zoom) on the 2nd/3rd Monday of each month at:
    • EST: 7 pm
    • Puerto Rico Time: 8 pm
    • PST: 4 pm
  • Sessions that teach genealogy techniques tailored for Puerto Rican research.
  • Opportunities to share discoveries, strategies and research ideas with peers.
  • Expert-led presentations and interactive Q&A’s.
  • Step-by-step guidance for beginners looking to get started.

Our group builds on the vibrant discussions in Facebook communities like Genealogía De Puerto Rico / Genealogy of Puerto Rico and Puerto Rican Genealogy—but adds the power of live events, structured learning, and deeper engagement.

Get involved:

Visit our Google Site: https://sites.google.com/view/puertoricangenealogygroup/

Please email us at puertoricangenealogygroup@gmail.com to join our email list and receive meeting invites.

Come as you are—bring your questions, your curiosity, and the desire to preserve your family story. Let’s uncover, connect, and preserve together.

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Documenting Our Puerto Rican Roots, One Grave at a Time

Posted in Ancestry, Ancestry Research, Family History, Family Photos, Puerto Rican Ancestry on May 29, 2025| Leave a Comment »

In Puerto Rico, many cemeteries are old and damaged. Storms, financial difficulties, and time constraints have made it challenging to keep them safe. These places hold the names and stories of our family members. If we don’t act now, we will lose them forever.

That’s why I started adding my family to FindAGrave.com. It’s a free website where you can create pages in memory of people who have passed away. You can add their names, photos, and stories so others can learn about them too.

I made a special page for my dear mother and her parents:

🌹 Aurora Valentín Ramos (1934–2017)

I was inspired by my husband’s ancestors on the site. His family, on the website, goes back to 1791:

👉 Angeline T. Beatie

Even if you only make one page, it helps. Every name we add keeps their memory alive. It also allows other people who are looking for their family.

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Memorials on FindAGrave.com

Creating digital memorials on FindAGrave.com is a free and powerful way to honor your loved ones and preserve Puerto Rican heritage. Here’s how to get started:

✅ How to Create a Memorial:

  1. Create a Free Account: Visit FindAGrave.com and sign up for a free account.
  2. Search Before You Add: Use the search feature to check if the person is already listed, avoiding duplicates.
  3. Add a New Memorial:
    • Click “Add a Memorial”
    • Enter full name, birth and death dates, and burial location
    • Choose or create the correct cemetery
  4. Upload Photos
    • Add headstone images or personal photos
    • Upload documents or obituaries if available
  5. Write a Short Biography: Share a few lines about their life, family, and legacy.
  6. Link to Relatives: Connect spouses, parents, children, and siblings who are also listed on the site.
  7. Update and Share: Continue to refine the memorial as you discover new facts, and share it with family.
Tombstones in a cemetery in Puerto Rico, featuring the names Aurora Valentín Ramos and Monserrate Ramos Muñoz, along with inscriptions and flowers.
Close-up of a weathered cemetery gravestone with names and dates etched into the surface, honoring Justa M. Silva and Jesus Ramos Acevedo.
My Great Grandparents’ Tombstone

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Discovering Genealogy Resources at FamilySearch Library

Posted in Ancestry Research, Family History, Puerto Rican Ancestry, Uncategorized, tagged on March 7, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I am in Salt Lake City this week, attending RootsTech 2025. I had the pleasure of connecting this morning with Kathy Weber, the president of the Seattle Genealogical Society. Although we have conducted genealogy research for years, this is our first time at this conference. Kathy has introduced me to many experts, and by noon on Wednesday, May 5th, I’m already having a fantastic time.

At FamilySearch Library. Kathy Weber and Sylvia Vargas at RootsTech 2025

After breakfast, we walked to our destination for the day, the FamilySearch Library. For me, this place feels like the “Rome of genealogy.” While many Puerto Rico resources are available online, exploring several shelves of books on Puerto Rico is truly inspiring. I feel privileged to read works by Estela Cifre de Loubriel, the grand dame of Puerto Rican genealogy. Some of her books are available as digital images, such as La inmigración a Puerto Rico durante el Siglo XIX, but I can’t help but feel excited to hold and read the hardcover editions while taking notes.

While browsing through the books at the FamilySearch Library, I discovered a book titled *Cabo Rojo: Notas para su Historia*. Out of curiosity, I conducted a Google search to check for a digital copy. I was thrilled to find that Rutgers University’s Center for Latin American Studies has digitized the entire series. They have a collaborative project with archival institutions in Puerto Rico.

I highly recommend checking out the links from the search at Notas para Su Historia: Municipal Histories of Puerto Rico to learn about the towns’ history.

My next post will be about various sessions on DNA and AI, as well as the new FamilyTree Maker 2024 features to support hyphenated last names. Not a perfect solution for our Spanish paternal and maternal names, but great progress.
Note: Family Tree Maker 2024 will be released within two weeks.

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Transform Your Genealogy Skills through Online Classes

Posted in Ancestry, Family History, Uncategorized, tagged , on March 1, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Enhancing My Genealogy Journey Through Education

Over the past six months, I have taken a couple of genealogy classes through Salt Lake City Community College, and the experience has been both enriching and transformative. These classes, priced at $425 for an eight-week all-online format, offer a structured approach to genealogy research and writing that has significantly impacted my work.

The Structure and Value of These Classes

The coursework demands time and effort, with no scheduled live meetings but plenty of reading, video lectures, discussion board interactions, and weekly essay assignments. One key aspect that I appreciate is the importance of deadlines—if assignments aren’t submitted on time, they aren’t graded, and you miss out on feedback. This feedback, in my opinion, is the most valuable part of the courses.

These classes are not easy, but they are highly rewarding. Not only are they more affordable than many other genealogy courses, but they also provide structure and discipline, helping me stay focused on my genealogy research. In fact, they have motivated me to be more intentional with my research and writing.

Upcoming Class: Genetic Genealogy

My next class, Genetic Genealogy, starts on March 18th. As DNA testing has become an invaluable tool in genealogical research, I am excited to deepen my understanding of how to interpret results and integrate them into my research. This is a field that continues to evolve, and I look forward to leveraging genetic data to solve family mysteries.

The Joy and Challenge of Genealogy Research

Like many genealogy enthusiasts, I know the thrill of searching FamilySearch or Ancestry.com, clicking through records, and suddenly uncovering a connection—it feels like striking gold! Since my retirement, I have been deeply focused on writing and compiling family histories for my relatives from Rincón, Puerto Rico. However, before taking these classes, my writing was overly factual—pages filled with names, dates, census records, and birth certificates, but lacking the compelling narratives that bring ancestors to life.

The Impact of the Writing Life Stories Class

One of the most transformative courses I took was Writing Life Stories. Coming from a background in tech and data science, I often approached genealogy with a heavily analytical mindset. This class challenged me to step out of that perspective and embrace storytelling. I learned to add depth, emotion, and context to the lives of my ancestors, making their stories more engaging and meaningful. This is a skill I hope to continue developing, and I plan to take another storytelling-focused class in the future to strengthen this muscle further.

Introduction to High-Tech Genealogy: A Deeper Dive

Currently, I am completing WTGN001 – Introduction to High-Tech Genealogy. While I have been using Family Tree Maker and Ancestry.com for over 20 years, I saw this class as an opportunity to expand my knowledge and familiarize myself with other genealogy software tools. However, I quickly realized that this class offers much more than just learning new software.

One of the most valuable lessons has been understanding the professional and rigorous process of genealogy research—learning how to maintain research logs, create proper citations, and compile detailed research reports. More importantly, it reinforced the genealogical research process, ensuring that my findings are well-documented and credible.

Beyond Personal Research: Aiming for Publication

While my primary goal is to create a comprehensive family history for my relatives, I also have aspirations to publish my research in a genealogical journal or magazine. These classes have helped me refine my methodology and approach, making my work more structured, credible, and engaging.

Final Thoughts

Genealogy is more than just a hobby—it’s a way of preserving and honoring the past. Through these courses, I have not only gained new research skills but also developed a deeper appreciation for storytelling. I look forward to continuing my genealogy education and sharing more about my journey with others passionate about uncovering their roots.

Have you taken any genealogy courses? What has helped you improve your research and storytelling skills? I’d love to hear about your experiences!

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US Census for Puerto Rico – Reading the Columns

Posted in Ancestry Research, Family History, Uncategorized, tagged , on December 10, 2024| Leave a Comment »

After reviewing my notes on various information sources, I realized that I still needed to transcribe all the columns from the US Census for Puerto Rico related to my ancestors. I began this process by attempting to decipher the column headings. However, even with maximum magnification on my monitor, I struggled to read them.

I decided to focus on understanding the enumerator’s handwriting in the Census rather than the printed column headings. To assist with this, I searched for resources that could provide the titles of each column. While I could generally interpret the content of my ancestors’ responses, I needed help comprehending the context of the questions included in the Census.

I found an excellent resource for the 1930 Census on a Roots Web page: Roots Web – 1930 US Census – Column List.
However, I noticed that the version for Puerto Rico did not contain all the same questions, and the order of the columns was sometimes different.

Below is my latest effort in translating the columns. I still need to work on adding the Spanish terms for each column. I hope this information can assist others on their Puerto Rican genealogy journey.

Check back as I add the 1910, 1920, 1940, and 1950 Census column descriptions.

1930 US Census for Puerto Rico – Census Columns

COLUMN #English/Spanish Description
Line Number
1Street Address
2House Number
3Attended school before sep 1, 1929
4Family Number
5 – ExtractedSurname
5 – ExtractedGiven Name
6Relation to Head (Parentesco)
7Home Owned or Rented (Casa Propria or alquilada)
8Home Value
9Gender (Sexo)
10Race
11Age
(Calculated in Ancestry)Estimated Birth Year
12Marital Status
13Attended School before sep 1, 1929
14Able to Read and Write
15Birthplace
16Father’s Birthplace
17Mother’s Birthplace
18Language used before migrating to US or Puerto Rico?
19Year immigrated to US or Puerto Rico?
20Naturalized?
21Speak English (¿Hablas inglés?)?
22Occupation
23Industry
24Class of Worker/Trabajador
E= Employee, D=Dueno/Owner
25UNEMPLOYED—Does this person regularly work in a lucrative business?
Spanish – ¿Esta persona trabaja regularmente en un negocio lucrativo?
26UNEMPLOYED: Are you currently unemployed?
27UNEMPLOYED: How many weeks have you been unemployed?
28Número en la tabla de finca. (# in the farm table)

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Family Search – Learning and Webinars

Posted in Ancestry, Ancestry Research, Family History, Puerto Rican Ancestry, Uncategorized, tagged , , on February 3, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Whether you are new to genealogy, need inspiration, or want to learn new skills, check out FamilySearch Library Classes and Webinars.

Happy Learning!!

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How history affected our ancestors lives and our choices today.

Posted in Family History, Uncategorized, tagged , on March 24, 2023| Leave a Comment »

In our quest to find our ancestors, we are perplexed at times as to why did they move. What affected their choices?

Years ago I found an article “Discover the “why” behind your ancestor’s choices”. The article referenced a good how-to research tip on history (see 20 Timeless Genealogy Research Tips) and how to create a timeline to align with your ancestor’s journey.

From an American experience, the Civil War (1861-1865), World War I (1914-1918), Great Depression (1929-1939) , World War II (1939-1945), Korean War (1950-1953), Vietnam (1955-1975) are some of the key historical events that shaped the experience of our ancestors in the United States and abroad.

In addition, the following events are what I believe affected my Puerto Rican ancestors’ lives.

Mi Tios (My Uncles):  Journey to New York and becoming “American”

My Tio Cangelo Vargas y Caro arrived in New York City by ship on April 1, 1937 (no joke!). 

Canjo was instrumental in leading the way for many in our family to New York. He helped many, but I want to call out the two other New York patriarchs in my family, my Tios Juan Valentin y De Jesus, and Flor Valentin y De Jesus. 

The following is the earliest listing I have discovered when my Tio Juan arrived in New York on April 23, 1938,

Both Cangelo and Juan enrolled in the US army as cooks in the second world war.  Later in the Korean War, Tio Flor served in the army as well.  After the war, they all owned restaurants in the garment district and Spanish Harlem.

Other uncles and cousins were inspired by them and enrolled in various branches of the US military.   Like all Americans, they all have their qualms about war and its struggle, but I am proud and grateful for their service.

What brought my uncle Cangelo to New York?  

My guess was to get work to rise his family from the poverty his immediate family was experiencing on the island especially in the middle of the Great Depression.  His father (my grandfather) was a very good man, but he was a subsistence farmer. 

With annual hurricanes, growing population on the island that literally could not feed themselves, with over 50% imports into the island was for food. 

My uncles Cangelo, Juan, and Flor positively impacted my life and the lives of our extended family on the US mainland as well as on the island of Puerto Rico. I personally have had more opportunities having been born and raised in NYC. I have a great education and blessed with a great career from their being my role model through their strong work ethic and the strong family community they created in New York.
They were and are foundational to a very strong “New York Puerto Rican” family that I am very proud and honored to be part of.


— What world events changed the course of your ancestor’s journey? —

More resources of interest:

Interested in Puerto Ricans in US Wars and Conflicts?  Check out Puerto Ricans Represented Throughout U.S. Military History.

Also found great photos of Puerto Rico from 1890 to 1901 in the Library of Congress website: https://www.loc.gov/collections/detroit-publishing-company/?fa=location:puerto+rico

Other resources you maybe interested in reading as well.

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Inventory of Family Memories

Posted in Family History, Family Photos, Uncategorized, tagged , , on February 27, 2023| Leave a Comment »

My husband recently got boxes of photos from his aunts who want to pass on the memories to the family. They are in their 80’s and 90s. They did a great job of annotating in the back of the photos with the year and who was in the photo.

It inspired me to look at photos I have scanned (and hundreds in need of scanning) and realized I need a better way of documenting these family treasures and how to share them with the family.

This is what I did:

  1. Created a folder in my google drive. I called it RinconForest. More on that in another post.
    You can create cloud drive using Apple’s iCloud or Microsoft’s OneDrive.
    If you want to learn more about the other free/low-cost cloud drive options, leave a comment and I will post on it.
  2. I uploaded a folder of pictures to the drive. It was a very easy drag-and-drop experience.
  3. I created a google sheet document with the link to the photo and other information. See below on Photo Inventory Spreadsheet.

Google Drive with photos uploaded

If you have a gmail account, here are instructions on Upload files and folders to Google Drive.
Dont have a gmail account? See Create a Google Account


Photo Inventory Spreadsheet

My intention for the spreadsheet was to not only remind me of what’s in the photo but also provide context to younger generations of the photos.

The following screenshot of the spreadsheet I created has

  • Link to the photo in google drive
  • Description of photo with information on where and who is in the photo.
  • Year or approximate year of the photo
  • Location- city/town where the photo was taken
  • Link to google maps as to the approximate location of the photo.

Spreadsheet for photo inventory in directory

What’s Next?
I am going to update the spreadsheet with all the picture name/location into the spreadsheet. I have an idea of using my technical skills to automate this.

I realized that I can add a description on the photo in google drive as well. Maybe do that first?

Enlist my family to update the photo/spreadsheet with memories and information.

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