On Monday’s Lifestyles page came the good news that the Northeast Michigan Genealogical Society had completed its 14-year endeavor to catalog and preserve the collection of society member and professional photographer Milo Burston.

The process begun in 2005 has been quite an adventure, including computer problems years ago that wiped out three years of work by Janet Romas and Diane Laseck and forced the society to start from scratch. In 2015, Edie Kelley and Rene Kendziorski began inputting the material into a database for preservation at the Besser Museum for Northeast Michigan. The effort was supported by funds from the Community Foundation for Northeast Michigan.

On Monday, Lifestyles editor Darby Hinkley reported the work was complete.

The effort was well worth it, preserving a treasure of Northeast Michigan history, including family, graduation, passport, business, church, and wedding photos from Burston’s half-century of work. Also included were negatives Burston inherited from his father, including historic Alpena photos dating back as far as 1924.

Our past is the foundation for our future, but it and all of its lessons will be lost to the ages without the good, hard work of folks like the Genealogical Society.

We thank the society members and say congratulations to everyone involved in saving the Burston treasure.

(THE ALPENA NEWS)