Six Ways to Keep a Family

DELGADO HERITAGE LLC offers six interlocking services, each one designed to hold a different kind of family record and each one able to stand alone or join a larger project. Some families arrive wanting only their photographs secured, while others hand over an entire estate and ask for a full heritage volume. From our archive office in North Ogden, every service follows the same discipline: survey, describe, capture and return, with sources attached to everything we touch.

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Service Lineage Plate

The Six Register Services

Each service below is described in full, from its purpose and method to the records it produces. Together they cover the whole journey of a family archive, from a first uncertain name to a bound book placed on a shelf.

GEN 1 1900s

Family Tree Research

Our research service begins with what a family already knows and builds outward into the documentary record. We work through census returns, civil registration, parish and church registers, military rolls, immigration and naturalisation files, land and probate records, cemetery transcriptions and newspaper archives. Each assertion in your tree is attached to the source that supports it, and conflicts between records are noted rather than hidden, because an honest tree is more useful than a tidy one.

Clients receive a documented lineage chart, a source list keyed to every person and a short written report on the lines we followed and the lines that remain open. We can research a single missing ancestor or map several generations across a region. Where a name is common, we use place, occupation and household structure to tell one family from another, which is often the difference between a correct line and a hopeful guess.

GEN 2 1930s

Photograph and Letter Digitisation

This service protects the visual and written keepsakes that deteriorate fastest. We handle prints, tintypes, glass negatives, film negatives, slides, albums, folded letters, postcards, greeting cards and certificates. Every item is surface cleaned with conservation safe materials, then captured on a calibrated scanner or copy stand at archival resolution. Colour is corrected against a neutral target so that a faded photograph recovers its true tones without being invented.

Files are named to match your family register, delivered in full resolution for archiving and a smaller viewing set for sharing. We also digitise the backs of photographs and the envelopes around letters, because a date, a name or a postmark is often the only clue that identifies who is pictured. Originals are returned untouched and, where needed, we supply archival sleeves and boxes so that the paper is not handled again.

GEN 3 1950s

Heirloom Preservation Cataloguing

Heirlooms are the objects a family cannot describe but also cannot throw away. This service gives each one a record. We photograph every object from multiple angles, measure it, identify its materials and note its condition, including scratches, repairs, missing parts and signs of wear. Ownership is traced as far back as the family can confirm, and the object is linked to the person and branch it came from.

The finished catalogue is a numbered reference that supports insurance scheduling, fair division among heirs and everyday curiosity. Entries include watches, rings, medals, tools, quilts, bibles, christening gowns, kitchen pieces, musical instruments and small furniture. For fragile items we recommend storage conditions and handling rules, and we can supply padded boxes and tags so that the catalogue number stays with the object.

GEN 4 1970s

Oral History Recording

Some records exist only in memory, and they disappear when a voice falls silent. Our oral history service records parents, grandparents, great aunts and community elders in a quiet, treated room using proper microphones and redundant capture. We prepare a gentle question guide, follow the speaker rather than a script and give plenty of room for the stories that matter most to them. Sessions can run across several visits when a speaker tires quickly.

Each recording is transcribed, light edited for clarity without altering meaning, indexed by topic, place and family name, and delivered as audio files plus a readable transcript. Speakers decide what may be shared and what stays sealed, and we can set a release date for sensitive passages. Nothing is published, sold or reused without written permission, and the family holds the master recordings.

GEN 5 1990s

Estate Document Archiving

When an estate opens, documents arrive in a rush and often out of order. This service sorts wills, trusts, deeds, titles, insurance schedules, bank and tax records, military discharges and correspondence into a clean, dated index that an executor or attorney can follow. We separate the temporary working copies from the permanent record, so that nothing important is lost in a folder of routine paperwork.

Sensitive items can be placed under a restricted schedule until probate closes or until a date chosen by the family. Originals are stored in acid free folders within labelled boxes, and protective copies are provided for daily use. The result is a calm, auditable archive at the exact moment when a family most needs order, plus a clear handover document that survives a change of executor.

GEN 6 Today

Heritage Book Publishing

A heritage book gathers a whole project into one readable volume. We write the narrative, lay out the lineage charts and weave in the catalogue entries, restored photographs and edited oral history transcripts so that a reader can move from a name to a face to a voice without losing the thread. Page design favours generous margins, clear type and captions that carry the source of every image.

Families choose a cloth or linen cover, archival paper and a print run sized to the household, from a single presentation copy to a run for a reunion. Each volume is indexed by person, place and photograph, and a matching digital edition is included. It is the part of the archive that gets taken off the shelf and read aloud, which is the surest sign that the work was worth doing.

DELGADO HERITAGE LLC opens new archive intakes this quarter. Reserve a place in the register and start with the service your family needs first.

The Process Behind Every Service

Whatever service you choose, the work moves through the same four stages. This keeps the register consistent and means a small photograph project is described with the same care as an estate collection.

Intake

We meet, inventory what exists and agree a fixed scope, timeline and estimate before any item is handled.

Survey

Each item is examined, cleaned where safe and described against a consistent template that you can review.

Capture

Documents and objects are captured at archival quality and files are named to match the family register.

Handover

You receive the chart, catalogue, images, transcripts or book, and originals are returned with storage guidance.

Combining Services Into One Archive

Most families do not need all six services at once, and we never push a household toward a larger project than it can absorb. A common path begins with photograph and letter digitisation because images and letters are the most fragile and the most emotionally immediate. Once those are safe, family tree research gives the faces names, and oral history recording supplies the voices that explain the connections.

Houses facing an estate often combine estate document archiving with heirloom preservation cataloguing, so that both the paperwork and the objects are documented before they are divided. Later, when the family is ready, a heritage book draws every strand together for a reunion or an anniversary. Because all six services share one register and one numbering system, each stage builds cleanly on the last rather than starting over.

If you are unsure where to begin, describe your collection to a record keeper and we will suggest a short first step. A single shoebox is a perfectly good place to start.

Choose the Service Your Family Needs First

Tell DELGADO HERITAGE LLC what you have, and we will map a short, honest path from the most fragile item to a finished, readable archive.

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