Preserving a Female Ancestor’s Photographs with Vivid-Pix Memory Station

Are precious details about the lives of your female ancestors hidden in old family photographs?  Most of us have bins or boxes of treasured memories just waiting to be uncovered and shared. 

Photo of Sr. Mary Camilla Alzo
Photo of my aunt, Sister Mary Camilla Alzo 

As a long-time genealogist, I have been researching the maternal lines in my family tree for more than 30 years. I wrote my book, Three Slovak Women as a tribute to my maternal grandmother and mother. Along the way I accumulated quite the collection of photographs, documents, and memorabilia. Since 2019, I have been on a mission to sort, scan, and share digital copies of the prints with my relatives.

Since March is Women’s History Month, I have decided to focus on the pictures that depict some of my female ancestors. But, where to begin?

With hundreds of photographs to process, I realized what a monumental task I had ahead of me. I needed a system to make things easier. I decided to follow a four-step process:

1. Sort – Organize photographs by family and then by date or event when possible.

2. Scan – Digitize the photographs using a scanner and correct any problems or imperfections using software (see below for details).

3. Store – Initially save the digital images to my computer (then move to an external hard drive with backup to cloud storage). 

4. Share – Share digital copies of the images with my cousins and other interested relatives.

I won’t bore you with the details of the sorting process, but I usually set aside an hour or two each week to go through the boxes and bins, sort the photos by family and then year/event where possible, and make sure they are put into archival safe storage boxes. The bigger decision for me was how to approach the scanning and storing. While I have a very nice Epson flatbed scanner to do the job, lifting the lid up and down is a bit cumbersome. And using my smartphone did not seem like the best option either. 

Enter the Vivid-Pix Memory Station

Recently I was given the opportunity to try out the Memory Station [affiliate link]. This is a combination of a Fujitsu ScanSnap SV600 + Vivid-Pix RESTORE software. In the bundle, Vivid-Pix includes FileShadow cloud archive if desired, providing storage for 1,000 images for free and additional fee for more storage).

The ScanSnap was easy to set up (I use it with a Windows laptop but it works with Mac too). I created a folder called ScanSnap Scans on my computer. I followed the instructions outlined on the Vivid-Pix website to get the best resolution and other specifications for saving the scans as high-quality JPEG image files. The ScanSnap allows for continuous scanning and for image correction if so desired. Each scan takes just a few seconds and can be done with either a simple press of the “Scan” button on the unit, or by clicking on the SCAN button in the ScanSnap software. Before I began the scanning process, I downloaded and installed the Vivid-Pix RESTORE software [affiliate link] – just $49.99 for a one-time fee and the ability to install on 2 computers (Mac and/or Windows). RESTORE is on sale this month, just $39.99 during the month of March, 2022 and they also offer a trial to fix 10 images for free. 


I tried out the Memory Station on a treasured scrapbook of photographs that belonged to my father’s sister, Anna, a Roman Catholic nun (she changed her name to Sr. Mary Camilla after taking her vows) who lived in Victoria, Texas most of her life. I called her “Auntie.”

I previously wrote about this scrapbook in a March 8, 2010 blog postThe album pages are falling apart and many of the photographs are faded, so I knew this was the perfect scanning project.  With the ScanSnap I could scan multiple photos, benefiting from the overhead scanner on these delicate items, and the ScanSnap separates them out so I can name them. 

Once scanned, the photos can be imported into Vivid-Pix RESTORE to restore the images with 1-click. There is also an option to fine-tune with easy controls. Below is a sample scanned photo of my Auntie and her two sisters (Betty and Helen) taken on Easter Sunday in 1941 in Duquesne, Pennsylvania. 

Photograph scanned with MemoryScan (not cropped)


The Vivid-Pix software adjusted color, contrast, lightness and sharpened the original photograph. As people have different perspective on “keeping age” (fade), less fade (or even back to the original black and white photo), below is the original and the 2 variations. [Note: I left the original photo on its black album backing but can crop the images as desired.]

My goal for this March is to scan the entire photo album and then create a digital version that I can share with others. I will likely share some of the results here on the blog as I work through the process.

Want to know more about the Memory Station?  Click here for more information.

Copyright 2022, Lisa A. Alzo

All Rights Reserved.


[Thank you for supporting The Accidental Genealogist by purchasing any products mentioned above, which are a part of the income stream for my writing/genealogy business].



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Announcing Fall into Family History Month Webinar: Saturday 30 September 2017!

I’m pleased to announce that registration is open for a special Fall into Family History Webinar on Saturday, 30 September 2017. 


I will be teaming up with my friend and colleague, Denise Levenick aka The Family Curator, and we want to help you kick-off your next family history writing or photo project.

Yes, we know this is short notice, but Denise and I were talking last week about how we could combine our areas of expertise to encourage and inspire genealogists to share their family photographs and stories. Since October is Family History Month, we decided to seize the moment!

The online seminar will take place on Saturday 30, September 2017 starting at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time / 8:00 a.m. Pacific time. Cost is just $19.95. There will be two sessions, which will include Q&A and we will also draw for some fun prizes.

Session 1: Organizing Your Family History Writing Project 
with Lisa Alzo, will show you how to:

  • confront and conquer writer’s block
  • use storyboarding to organize your ideas
  • find and use pro writer’s tools for outlines, timelines, mind maps and more
  • generate and discover new ideas to bring your stories to life 


Session 2: Selecting and Preparing Images for Your Family History Project 
with Denise Levenick, will help you know:

  • what to look for when choosing snapshots and digital images
  • minimum requirements for image size and resolution
  • how to organize images for easy access and publication
  • the three photo edits every picture needs
  • how to convert file formats for your project 

Limited seats available. All paid registrants will receive links to watch the recordings and will receive the handouts, so if you can’t attend the live webinars on Saturday, you can still register and watch later on your own schedule.

Registration ends at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, 29, September 2017.  Click here to register or learn more. 



If you are ready to jumpstart a project this October, then register TODAY for the Fall into Family History Month Saturday Seminar.


[Disclosure: The above post is an advertisement for a paid webinar I will be presenting]

Copyright 2017, Lisa A. Alzo, All Rights Reserved

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