[mikewarot]

You're asking a technical question, which is the wrong way to go here.

1. Make sure you have all the faces in the photos labeled in a way that can be accessed in the future. Old physical photos without the names written on the back are essentially worthless, as nobody knows who they are. Full names, and how everyone is related, perhaps a bit of story is important.

2. Make sure your kids are interested in this stuff, or your grandkids. If they don't want it, it's all going to be pitched out, and you're wasting your time. My child has expressed a desire for a modest subset of my 650 Gb of personal photos. I'm going to weed it wayyyyy down for her, and make sure all the photos are labeled correctly and completely.

3. Make sure they have sufficient income to live their lives, and also pay for a new hard drive from time to time, to copy the information forward in time. A box of photos is generally quite easy to store, if you have a home.

PS: Am I the old man here? Nobody else mentioned this angle yet, and to me it seems to be the most obvious.

[tripleo1]

Great answer/comment. But how will you ensure the pictures (physical artifacts) survive? In other words, how old is the oldest picture you have now?

[mikewarot]

Generally, you keep photographs in a cool, dry location, and keep them away from direct sunlight. Most other objects require some form of climate controlled storage. It could be in a closet, cabinet, etc. Not a garage or basement, those tend to be too humid.

We have photographs that are 100 years old. I have floppy disks from the 1980s that can still be read. Books from the 1800s. Tools over 100 years old.