Georgia Genealogical Society
Quarterly Educational Series

Saturday, June 27, 2026
10:00 a.m. – 3:45 p.m. ET 

The Georgia Archives and the Georgia Genealogical Society will present Genealogy @ the Georgia Archives: Preserving Family History on Saturday, June 27, 2026, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. The in-person program will be held at the Georgia Archives in Morrow. This year’s event will focus on how family history is preserved, digitized, shared, and stewarded across personal collections, community archives, and collecting institutions. Through a series of presentations, attendees will learn practical ways to care for records, photographs, and keepsakes; consider new approaches to community archiving; explore tools for digitizing and sharing family stories; and better understand how collecting institutions evaluate historic and cultural donations.

This event is free and open to the public. Registration is required by Thursday, June 25, at 11:59 p.m. Register for the program here. For any questions regarding the program or registration, please contact Robin Klemm at Robin.Klemm@usg.edu.

For further details and directions to the Georgia Archives, please visit GeorgiaArchives.org.

Schedule:

9:30 a.m. – Check-in

10:00 a.m. – “Preservation of Original Records” By Sigourney Stanford, Conservator, Georgia Archives

This presentation will introduce audiences to the most common causes of damage to historical records and personal collections and offer practical guidance for reducing that risk at home. Presented by Georgia Archives Conservator Sigourney Stanford, the program will address environment, light, housekeeping, storage, handling, and disaster preparedness and response, with an emphasis on everyday preservation for the public.

11:00 a.m. – Break

11:15 a.m. – “From Collection to Connection: A New Approach to Community Archiving” By Kate Forry Guanci, CEO, Archoral

Traditional archives often rely on isolated collections and fixed records, but the richest stories live in the connections between people, places, and shared experiences. This presentation will explore a new way of building community archives using Archoral’s profile-based approach. Instead of filing materials into separate folders, a single piece of media can be connected to multiple people and locations, allowing stories to build naturally as connections form across people and places. What starts as individual submissions quickly reveals something much larger: a connected, living archive. We will also introduce Archoral’s collaboration features, allowing institutions to invite contributors to help build and organize archives, while offering patrons view-only access to explore and see their contributions as part of a larger whole. The result is an ever-evolving, community-built archive, one that grows over time, reflects multiple points of view, and is owned and shaped by the people and organizations it serves.

12:15 p.m. – Lunch

1:30 p.m. – “From Closet to Connections: A Simple and Fun Way to Digitize, Preserve, and Share Stories” By Rick Voight, CEO, Vivid-Pix

For nearly 200 years, families have preserved photographs, letters, and printed materials that carry personal and historical meaning. Too often, though, the stories behind those items live with only a few people, and without action, that knowledge can be lost. This session will explore how Vivid-Pix Memory Station and Software can help make digitizing, preserving, and sharing those materials more approachable and meaningful. Drawing on collaboration, research, and insights from experts in family history and aging well, the program will introduce tools and methods designed to help individuals and organizations care for their collections and connect them to the stories that matter. Attendees will receive an overview of the processes, products, and programs currently being used in libraries, museums, senior living communities, educational settings, and homes around the world.

2:30 p.m. – Break

2:45 p.m. – “The Other Side of the Desk: Historic & Cultural Donations from a GLAM Organization’s Perspective” By Allison Young, Local History & Research Library Manager, Ellen Payne Odom Genealogy Library

This presentation will explore the donation process from the perspective of galleries, libraries, archives, and museums, with a focus on how institutions evaluate potential donations and prepare materials for long-term stewardship. Attendees will gain a better understanding of what collecting organizations look for, how donation decisions are made, and what individuals should consider when preparing family or personal history materials for possible donation.

In-person event at the Georgia Archives, Morrow, GA