As I dig through the old family photos that have been lovingly given to me by both of my grandmothers I often find more questions than answers. Neither one of my grandmothers live close to me, so the first thought that comes to mind when I have a question about the identity of those nameless ancestors is to email them the photo so they can see what I'm looking at. I'm lucky because both of my grandmothers do have a computer, and both use email, but they sometimes struggle a little with the complicated aspects of downloading and viewing a photo I've attached to my email. There are, however, a few things I do to help make the process more user-friendly.

1. Let her know it's coming. Whether you call, or send them a separate email first, it helps to let people know that pictures are on the way.

2. Keep the file size small. Create a low-resolution (1024 x 768 or smaller) copy of your photo before attaching it to your email, This ensures that people with a slow Internet connection, will be able to download and view your photos fairly easily. If you aren't sure how to resize your photos, try these free resizing tools and tips.

3. Give the photo an appropriate name. If you've scanned in the photo or downloaded it from a digital camera, chances are the photo has a random file name that means nothing. Renaming the photo with a more descriptive file name (e.g. powellreunion2006.jpg) will make it easier for your recipient to distinguish it from spam, and find it on their computer.

4. Don't send large batches of photos at once. Many email providers have a restriction on attachment sizes. And zipping up the photos to save space may be too much to understand for less tech-savvy recipients. I usually send only 1 photo per email to anyone on my list who I think may have trouble with photo attachments.