Family History Is More Than Dates

I have spent the last two weekends helping my sisters pack up my mother’s apartment so she could move to an assisted living apartment this week. I am thankful that this was not the ‘downsize’ move. That concluded seven years ago after a few years and more days than I care to count were spent sorting through childhood memories (hers and ours) as we decided what stayed and what went to the apartment. 

Even after seven years in a two-bedroom apartment, there were still a lot of questions.

When did you last use your ice pick? 

Will you need that many towels?

my mother and her towel collection

Family History

February is Family History Month and I have been gathering bits of mine over the last few weeks. Not just the photos and some of the stories captured in them, but the stories behind the candlesticks, the pocket watch, the hand-knit hat, and even a bell.

Family History can be more than names and dates on a family tree. A good family history includes pictures and stories. Pictures and stories of the people - who they were, what they did - and maybe even pictures and the stories of what they left behind. My mother has written down some of those stories. We found many of the items with little slips of paper, in her perfect penmanship, explaining who the item belonged to and, in some cases, how she came to have it. 

Handbell used by L G Bell's Aunt Anna Patterson about 1895, in country school where she taught.

The Box

There was, of course, ‘the box’. The DWL (Deal With Later) box as my sister labeled it. It has scrapbooks from my father, albums of pictures my mother took as a child, pictures of me and my sister growing up, professional photos of her parents, my cousin’s high school pictures, pictures of her grandchildren (our children), etc... 

So what to do with all of this? The items in DWL (Deal With Later) box are a priority as the photos will continue to deteriorate. Thankfully, many of the photos have been marked that they have already been saved in FOREVER. We have been working on that for the last few years. The ones that are not will be headed for a digitization box so they can be added to my permanent FOREVER account. The items with their stories on slips of paper were moved to the new apartment. They will be photographed and saved in FOREVER as well. 

FOREVER Family History Event

Saving Photos

What about the photos that have already been saved? Since they are saved in my FOREVER account for my lifetime plus 100 years (long after the pictures will fade away) the logical response is to toss them out.

The emotional response doesn’t always allow that. That’s okay.

As long as we have space for the box it can stay. We will add a note that includes the QR code and the address to the album in FOREVER. That way anyone who comes across the box won’t be sad that the photos of their family history have all deteriorated (because they will) and they can’t see them. Instead they will have access to the photo treasures and stories that the box once contained.

Saving your family history starts with last picture you took and can go back generations. They should all be saved and shared with your currently family and the generations to come.