The biggest learning curve for us all at Ancestor Homes has been leaning how to use and maintain the scanners. We started with a high volume scanner for A4/A3 sized documents but soon realised that we would need to get a flatbed for the stitched documents and those written on velum. We bought an accessory for the high volume scanner but it could only fit A3 size, so we then bought an A2 scanner. For the past few months we have been running these 3 machines and have been populating our database with the masses of information we gather. We’ve also been maintaining, cleaning and updating our scanners ourselves.

We’ve now realised that even A2 isn’t big enough for us. We’re hiring an A0 scanner for a week this summer so we can scan some of our large parchment and velum deeds. We’re all looking forward to digitising some of our most prized deeds, even if it means we’ll be sneezing and using infinite amounts of hand cream for a week.

We hope Ancestor Homes brings history to life for so many people. Who knows, we could have something which relates to you.