Added later - very important to put all the photos in zip lock plastic bags. My niece’s box was delivered to a door they never use. It got wet, photos in their bag were fine.
These (below) were the bigger packages, I used flat rate boxes from the post office. It was $16 for the larger boxes in this picture and $10 for the small. The larger envelopes were all under $5, and many were $2.
It was about $90 postage for this first pile which included many hundreds of photos from my house and my mother’s house. I shipped mostly to my first cousins, my brother, my niece and nephew. They received pictures of themselves, with their siblings, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins.
Yes, there were a lot over overlapping lines. I used my best judgement.
And the most important part? I went thru everything, before I shipped the first box. The metal cabinet upstairs that I thought only housed photos from my husband’s family, had lots of other friends/family photos.
I was very, very happy with this project. I have saved my kids a lot of grief. Cleaning out our house at some future date, this would have been impossible for them. My mom (81) sorted hers. I sorted mine. I combined, resorted and shipped.
More info is here -
https://baby-steps-v.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-extended-family-photo-project.html?m=1
The following week, I shipped several more half size mantilla envelopes, not in the picture. Then more envelopes went, one or two at a time. These went to college friends, my mom’s first cousin, former neighbors, some of my husband’s cousins. I shipped an envelope of slides to my aunt and uncle. We included a note with every package.
We are hearing back from people as the (23) packages arrive. Some are excited, some are joyfully tearful. People are getting together to go thru their boxes.
And yes, as soon as we ship, even though we went thru things carefully, we find a few straggler photos. I have a system in place for that now.
I put three odd red envelopes in the cubby with my holiday card supplies. When we find a random photo now, it goes in the red envelopes and then will be distributed in my holiday cards next year.
I saved the “direct line” photos of myself with my parents, grandparents, great grandparents, aunts and uncles. Getting rid of the hundreds of extras, allows me to really focus on the photos I saved. I am now working on several projects.
