In a message dated 19/09/2007 18:00:07 GMT Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: Can any listers recommend the best way to label photos for posterity? Janet Hopkins, Janet: The family to whom the photos you mention belonged were very lucky indeed! The better Family History Societies - ie those that operate a Library, as does the NDFHS, often accept pedigrees etc from members, on the basis that after the "family genealogist" dies and all his or her papers are consigned to a bonfire (as happens all too often) anything deposited with the FHS will still survive. Perhaps you should ask whether they would be willing to accept a labelled and well written-up "family photo archive" as well. Alternatively why not scan them all into your computer then print them out onto a CD or a set of CDs, of which copies could be deposited with the FHS, and with other relatives/interested people/interested bodies - indeed with anyone willing to take them. CDs are much less bulky than a box of photos and so would be that much more acceptable. In this, as in so many other ways, regional FHSs can be of enormous help to their members. I strongly recommend everyone with any interest in their family history to become a member of the FHS that covers the district where the family originated. In particular, the NE of England is very well served by the Northumberland and Durham Family History Society (NDFHS). It was founded in 1975 and currently has a world-wide membership of over 4,000 keen family historians, all researching families from the north-east of England. Since its foundation some 16,000 people have been members at one time or another. That represents a tremendous amount of knowledge! See _www.ndfhs.org.uk_ (http://www.ndfhs.org.uk) or e-mail me personally for more details. The Cleveland, North Yorkshire and South Durham Family History Society also covers the extreme southern part of Co Durham, but unlike the NDFHS it does not have permanent premises, nor does it operate a reference library. Geoff Nicholson