1. Wealth ARCHIVES
30 Cape & Plymouth Business Health & Wealth | Fall 2014 | capeplymouthbusiness.com
Preserving
MEMORIES
for future generations
By Lisa Thornton

2. capeplymouthbusiness.com | Fall 2014 | Cape & Plymouth Business Health & Wealth 31
Family photos and videos should be a
source of enjoyment, but too often are
a source of stress. We worry about old
albums and home movies getting dam-
aged or lost over time. We feel over-
whelmed by cluttered digital collections
scattered across cameras, phones and
computers. We think about what could
go wrong, but rarely act, leaving us
unable to share memories with loved
ones, and pass on what matters most.
For many of us, dealing with our pho-
tos and videos has been on the to-do
list, but options have been limited.
Fortunately, families can now rely on
professional companies for help with
this undertaking.
Companies such as New England-based
EverPresent can be entrusted with
your old photos, videos, scrapbooks,
albums, slides, videos, film reels, news-
paper clippings and artwork. The com-
pany’s team works with you to preserve
everything digitally. They will organize
your recent digital photos and videos.
They will even custom-design photo
gifts. And everything is done locally by
EverPresent’s 50-person team – with
in-home consultations available across
New England.
EverPresent was launched by Eric and
Jennifer Niloff after they struggled
to digitize, organize and share Eric’s
grandfather’s WWII-era photo collec-
tion. They found the result rewarding,
but the equipment expensive and the
process frustrating and time-consum-
ing. “Families invest so much in pro-
tecting their material possessions with
insurance agents, investment advisors
and estate planners, but have had no
one to help them pass on their history,”
Eric said.
Eric and Jennifer have built their entire
approach around the service that they
wish had been available to them. Their
process can be divided into three sim-
ple steps: Digitize, Organize, Share.
Digitize: This step is about security –
making sure that irreplaceable older
items are on DVD, external hard drive
or the cloud. EverPresent recommends
three backups, with at least one copy
stored outside the home. Before begin-
ning a digitizing project, it is advised
that families ask questions like: What
family keepsakes could we absolutely
not live without? What stories must be
passed on so our kids know where they
came from?
Across thousands of clients, the
EverPresent team has found that about
65 percent of families digitize every-
thing, while 35 percent make selec-
tions or divide their project into phases.
The important thing is to get started.
Some people have time to go through
everything. Others don’t. And that’s
OK. People just need to avoid the trap
of being a perfectionist and letting that
prevent progress. We advise families to
find easy wins and get the most impor-
tant items safe as soon as possible.
Organize: The next step is to sort and
categorize the images. Organizing is
key. If people can’t find the photo or
video they want, we have replaced an
analog mess with a digital mess. That’s
unacceptable.
During the digitizing process, clients
are asked to consider their priorities.
Do you think about your history in terms
of time? People? Vacations? Careers?
Before meeting with us, many think the
only way to organize their collection is
chronologically. Families should think
about what topics are most meaningful,
and make sure they can share their his-
tory along those lines.
EverPresent provides advanced meta-
data tagging to photos and videos so
they can be searched. One example,
facial recognition, allows you to find
any friend or family member at the click
of a button. These services are avail-
able for old items newly digitized, or
for disorganized collections of recent
digital photos and videos.
Share: The final step is sharing the
images with family and friends. When a
project brings a family closer together,
it makes all the work worth it.
EverPresent provides advice and design
services to help turn mountains of pho-
tos and videos into elegant gifts and
family history projects. When clients
have images and videos, or a large
event is planned, they recommend edit-
ed slideshows. When clients have large
quantities of photos and text to display,
photo books are recommended. Some
families also interview family members,
or have loved ones write down impor-
tant memories, so that future gen-
erations can understand the context
behind the photos and videos.
Working through the process can
involve countless decisions. For this
reason, EverPresent has a team of con-
sultants dedicated to advising families
with one-on-one service. In-person and
phone consultations are available at
EverPresent’s Newton, MA headquar-
ters. In-home appointments are avail-
able across New England, including in
my home region of the South Shore and
Cape Cod.
If you are looking for an excuse to final-
ly tackle this project, sharing treasured
memories and stories makes for a won-
derful holiday gift. Reliving old stories
can bring so much fun, laughter and joy
to gatherings with family and friends,
and get your family started on the path
to preserving history for future genera-
tions.
Lisa Thornton is
the South Shore
Representative for
EverPresent (everpresen-
tonline.com). She can be
reached at (617) 505-1149
or lisa@everpresenton-
line.com.