My brother Tom and I were born into the lives of a couple that had already been married nearly twenty years. Both of them were avid letter writers and amateur photographers going back into the 1930s. Our house was a testimony of time (as we kept everything).
Part of my penance now is this site and archiving, as many of the problems I have sorting through these records were made more difficult from childhood snooping on my part. I was very good at it mind you, and as my Aunt Helen would attest, I was much better on the front end of taking things apart, and always ended up with more pieces at the end and without any clue where to stick them (her sewing machine for instance).
I have tried to use the original material as much as possible, such as photos in scrapbooks, etc..., but I did find original negatives, and they are much better for this website.
Where possible, I have tried to put in links to other sites that are related, so check it out!
Almost all of the images on the site are from photos taken by Alice and Maurice Murphy, myself, or others who had given them photos over the years. Special thanks to others that have contributed photos, including Anna Ruef Calleja (they retain rights to their images).
(Please note that all images are copyrighted and protected by the "use of this site" paragraph below.)
The Plan
Initially I thought I could get all of this stuff done in a year or so. It was a bit naive, as it really takes a full time commitment. The following pictures are some of the reasons why this will take about ten years worth of work on and off. If you see the plastic bins, imagine another ten to fifteen full of photos and documents. I do enjoy it though, but I wanted to share a bit of the dilemma that faces family archiving. Bottom line, figure out what is most important, and then just work through it bit by bit, or as Anne Lamott describes in her writing book, "Bird by Bird" - a good book on writing if you are interested. To make the work easier, I would recommend buying an Apple IMAC, which tends to be the nicest environment to work in. Since it runs both as a PC and a MAC, you can run pretty much any Scanner out there ( check to make sure the Drivers are compatible with your OS [operating system]).
Bins and Bins
Part of the Worktable
It would be great to be able to blame all this stuff on familial hoarding, but that would be slightly unfair. I just couldn't part with the stuff, and once I saw it, I realized it was something worth displaying, albeit NOT in my house. Thank God the Internet is a worthy place.
Goals
2009 Goals
The goals have changed since I started the site. Initially I was going to do a small subset of the entire collection. But I soon realized that with time, I will be able to include copies of everything here on the website. I will keep DVDs of all the original source material.
December 1, 2018
While the goals have not changed - timelines do. In the meantime, we moved to Sebastopol, California. Obligations change as well as priorities and so does technology. In the last two years, one of my favorite scanners died and was replaced. I have more bins and less boxes but the task is the same and will no doubt have "stuff" left over that will not make it to the website or Facebook site.
What I do plan to do however is to put this site up for access indefinitely and also have available all the materials I have scanned and put onto a data stick. I will probably do that in the next five years or so.
Use of the Site
This site was developed to share a bit of our family history through photographs and some documents that we are allowing visitors to view.
Otherwise this site is for the expressed use of family members. The archive area in particular is meant for family members to enjoy a bit of the written history through letters and documents.
Enjoy looking at the site, but downloading anything or copying pictures is not allowed and will be protected to the fullest extent of the law.
