> I recently inherited an old photo album with pictures and documents > glued onto the pages. I've tried steam, etc., to get them off, but > with no luck! I can see some writing on the back of the photos, > which will identify some ancestors. Does anyone have ideas on how I > can get these items off the pages? > > Lorraine <Landmoffat@aol.com> I am not going to *precisely* answer your question at this moment (dinner is cooking & i gotta scoot). but I would begin to tackle your problem by photocopying each page of your album onto acid free paper. (that is, your baseline info will be preserved.) (other people may prefer to scan each page or some other method.) (an archivist would completely dismantle the album, but that may not be your next step at this point.) An x-ray-type machine might be able to pick up and then reverse the words on the back; but that is outside of my ability and i am thinking not readily available to any of us. (in other words, there is expensive technology out there that would salvage everything from the album.) heck.. gotta go. This problem takes a lot of TLC and usually requires professional materials/time to work through, but it IS possible to get that info.... warmest, charles Charles <lmnoNOSPAM@mindspring.com>

"Charles" <lmnoNOSPAM@mindspring.com> wrote: > > I recently inherited an old photo album with pictures and documents > > glued onto the pages. I've tried steam, etc., to get them off, but > > with no luck! I can see some writing on the back of the photos, > > which will identify some ancestors. Does anyone have ideas on how I > > can get these items off the pages? > > > > Lorraine <Landmoffat@aol.com> > > I am not going to *precisely* answer your question at this moment > (dinner is cooking & i gotta scoot). but I would begin to tackle > your problem by photocopying each page of your album onto acid free > paper. (that is, your baseline info will be preserved.) (other > people may prefer to scan each page or some other method.) <snip> Charles and Lorraine, You mentioned a very good method of "backing up" the photo album. Have each page copied onto "quality" paper on a color copier. As the person who does it for you to try it first in black and white. I find that the clearest method. If you copy it in color it will tend to emphasize the yellow in the paper and photos making it too yellow. That has been my experience anyway. It will cost about 99 cents per 8 1/2 x 11 copy or maybe about 69 cents on sale. I have two other brief ideas on getting it copied. First, don't plan on trying to reformat the picture size too much. It gets too time consuming and the technician will not take the care needed. Secondly, check to make sure they are using acid free paper. It doesn't have to be real glossy but very good quality bright (94 or better) paper would be good. Oh yes, I would suggest not using a Kodak photo machine. It will do a great job but at $5.00 to 10.00 per page rather than the 99¢. John "The Wilson's" <wjp5@icehouse.net>