Flatbed Scanners - Which One is Right for You?

I love scanners. I love scanning my old photographs, documents, cards and every bit of ephemera I have!

Genealogists probably buy more scanners than anyone but it's not easy to make a decision as to which one is best.

I can't review scanners I have not used but I was checking Amazon last night and realized I could help out by narrowing the field of choices. So I've put together a list based on reviews on other websites and reviews on Amazon.

If you're buying yourself or someone else a scanner this Christmas, or are lucky enough to be getting one as a gift, you may want to consider these options:


Epson Perfection V37 Color Photo, Image, Document Scanner with scan-to-cloud & 4800 x 9600 dpi (B11B207201) 4  stars, reviewed by 196 customers













Canon Office Products LiDE120 Color Image Scanner  4 stars, 590 customer reviews







HP L1957A#B1H Scanjet G4050 Photo Scanner

4 stars, 218 customer reviews

What to Do with Those Old Family Photos, Letters, and Documents

Yesterday Olive Tree Genealogy received an email with exciting news from FamilySearch. Here is their announcement:

Free records preservation service available nationwide
SALT LAKE CITY, UT—FamilySearch International (online at FamilySearch.org) announced today a new, free family photo and document scanning and preservation service for patrons in thousands of its North American family history centers. Patrons can now digitally preserve and share their precious printed historic family photos and documents using customized Lexmark multifunction products (MFPs).

“We all have them. You know, the kitchen or dresser drawers, paper boxes or plastic bags, scrapbooks or folders—all full of family photos, vital records, and other keepsake correspondence from our ancestors,” said Penney Devey, FamilySearch Director of Worldwide Patron and Partner Services. “These family artifacts are constant reminders of our heartfelt good intentions to someday preserve, organize, share or tell their hidden stories for posterity. We just don’t know where to start, how to do it, or feel we can’t afford it.”

Well, thanks to FamilySearch and Lexmark, the future is now here. And there is now a very convenient, free solution to each family’s photo and historic document preservation and sharing needs readily accessible to almost everyone.

FamilySearch has equipped over 2,800 of its local family history centers in North America with new Lexmark MFPs (coming soon to international centers). The Lexmark MFPs are easy to use and can digitally scan your documents and photographs quickly. The most exciting part is that software from Lexmark that runs on the MFP lets the user scan their documents and photos directly into a free FamilySearch.org account where the documents and photos can later be tagged, explained, shared with others, or attached to ancestors in your free FamilySearch Family Tree. You can also save the digital copies to a thumb drive and take them home with you.
FamilySearch and Lexmark have made it very easy and convenient to preserve family photos and historic documents. All you have to do is bring the stash of photos and documents that you want to digitally preserve to your local FamilySearch family history center.

“The Lexmark solution we’ve created for FamilySearch is an example of how Lexmark MFPs and software come together to solve unique paper-based workflow challenges,” said Marty Canning, Lexmark executive vice president and president of Imaging Solutions and Services division. “We’ve made it faster and easier for family history center patrons to scan historic photos and vital documents right from our Lexmark MFPs into their online family trees.”

The touch screen on the Lexmark MFP is easy to use and lets patrons scan in three easy steps:

1. Touch the FamilySearch Logo
2. Log in to your free FamilySearch.org account
3. Scan your family documents and photos

Your documents and photos scan directly to a folder on your personal FamilySearch.org account online or to your thumb drive. From any computer with Internet access, you can log into your account and select either documents or photos under the Memories feature to view the high-quality digital images of your scanned documents. From within your account, you can label, crop and share your historic family documents and photos of ancestors in your free FamilySearch Family Tree.

“By sharing links to the uploaded artifacts with family and friends, you can encourage them to add their photos and family documents for your common ancestors,” added Devey. “Don’t be surprised if you discover additional photos of common ancestors that other relatives may have already scanned and uploaded.”

Patrons can also upload digital files of their family photos and historic documents directly at FamilySearch.org.
FamilySearch is a world leader in historic record preservation and access, connecting growing generations of families through family history products and services. Lexmark is uniquely focused on connecting unstructured printed and digital information across enterprises with the processes, applications and people that need it most. For more information, please visit www.lexmark.com. 

Canada's History Asking for Submissions of WW1 Photos and Ephemera

Ernest Simpson

Help ensure Canada's WW1 soldiers are not forgotten. In 2014, Canada’s History will honour the men and women who together helped win WWI with a new book, Canada’s Great War Album.


Sendscanned WWI photos, letters, or mementoes from your family's collection for a chance to have them included in this new book.

I plan on re-scanning my WW1 ephemera - my grandmother's brother Ern's photos, paybook and other documents, as well as other memorabilia from other family members who participated in this war.

Brian, of AncestorsAtRest, also has family medals, photos, and postcards sent from two of his grand uncles who were killed while fighting. We need to rescan the items as Canada's History requests all scans be done in 600 dpi and saved as jpeg.

It sounds like a wonderful way to ensure the memory of these brave men and women live on.

Just Ordered My Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner

Well I did it. I ordered a Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner

I've heard good things about this scanner, and I loved that it is small (10.25 x 6.5 x 1.25 inches), easily carted around (weighs less than one pound), and scans in an area 4x6inches. It will scan larger documents or photos and has stitching software to merge larger items into one.

Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner is cordless, battery powered (I love that idea!) You can set it for 600 and 300 dpi resolution which is plenty for my genealogy scanning needs. I'm excited to see it, try it and use the stitching software program for larger scans.

The website says it's "A remarkable solution for preserving and sharing memories" If it works as they say it does, it will be! I'll be taking it to my 87 year old auntie's place and scanning all those old photos I've been drooling over. The ones she can't bear to let out of her sight....

I'm really excited about this portable scanner and can't wait for it to arrive. Oh and I almost forgot to mention, it was only $149.99. Fingers crossed that it arrives soon!

Ancestry.com Bringing High-Speed Scanners to FGS in Little Rock

Received from Ancestry today:

Ancestry.com is excited to provide FGS conference attendees the opportunity to have their family records scanned, for free, on high–speed scanners.

The scanners will be available for up to 15-minute scanning sessions on Thursday, September 3, through Saturday, September 5, during the exhibit hall hours.

Scanning-session signs-ups will open each morning—sign up Thursday morning for a Thursday time slot, Friday morning for a Friday time slot, and so on. The scanning machines and sign-ups will be located in the Toltec Lobby registration area of the Statehouse Convention Center.

To help
Ancestry.com finalize scanning plans, we're asking conference attendees to visit the following URL and let us know if they will be bringing items to scan: http://FGSscanners.eventbrite.com

Details about Scanning
· Ancestry.com imaging specialists will operate the scanner
· Ancestry.com is bringing two scanners to the conference: a high–speed, loose–leaf scanner that will scan documents and photographs in full color and a planetary scanner for books and more fragile items
· Attendees will be able to scan about 100 family photographs or documents during a 15–minute session
· Scanned images will be saved to flash drives (provided at no cost by Ancestry.com) and given to attendees. (Note: Scanned images will NOT be uploaded to the Ancestry.com website by Ancestry.com personnel.)
· Due to anticipated demand, conference attendees will be able to sign up for only one scanning session during the conference

There is always a possibility that damage to older, more fragile documents may occur during the scanning process. Ancestry.com urges patrons to use their best judgment when choosing documents to be scanned.