At a recent meeting of the Edgmont Township Historical Society, a historic homeowner brought in old photos of various generations of one of the early Edgmont families. The family has been careful stewards of the 18th-century farmhouse where they live and the accumulated photos, documents and other items that have been handed down for generations.
We asked if they would be willing to have the Society visit and scan the items and hear about the stories they capture. They were agreeable, and a few weeks later, a few volunteers showed up, along with a laptop and a scanner. We sat at a table covered with old items, and four hours later, we were able to leave with a big piece of Edgmont history now preserved. The items still exist in the family’s possession, but now they are backed up so that in the event of any future casualty, copies exist.
But that is only the first step in the process. Now comes the job of cataloging the scans. Who is in each photo, when was it taken, what is that building in the background, and why was that group gathered together? Other local historical societies have gone through that laborious process and then have plugged that information into a searchable database. When the work is all done – as far as it can be taken – then it can be made available online, and future researchers and family descendants can search the database and find this information on their ancestors and perhaps reach out to submit photos of their own.
Facial recognition software has advanced to the point where if you have one firm name of a person in a photo, the software can search through all of your photos and pull up other faces 
that may in fact be the same person. I have used old software, Picasa, that pulled up and matched photos of my mother when she was one year old, and when she was 80 years old, and everything in between. So even when you may have photos with no names on the back, sometimes the software can help you make the match with known pictures of ancestors.
Before any of those good results can happen, the old photos have to be digitized, preferably at the highest quality available. And that, my history-minded readers, is something that the new Edgmont Township Historical Society is willing to do for those of you who have old photo archives. So start digging into those old boxes in your attic and old family bibles for photos, wedding certificates, diaries, business records and anything of historic interest. And then let us know where to find you to host the next scanning party!
For more history on Edgmont Township, Delaware County, and membership information, please visit our Facebook group at https://facebook.com/groups/edgmonthistoricalsociety/