Ask HN: Cataloging Family Assets

You start and just do the hard messy work.

Grab all the papers and pictures together, sit down with Grandma (or whomever is the oldest person in your family), and go through it all. For each picture, document who is in it, tell stories about where it came from, record it all. When you are done, digitize it, publish it on paper, whatever makes you happy. But the time spent with the people who are around to talk about it all is not only the key to getting all the information correct, but also a meaningful way to pass knowledge around, and is not time you'll feel is wasted once the older folk are gone.