GeneaBabble

I just read this post over at Genea-Musings and since I’ve been on the topic of preserving family history (both oral and written) I thought I’d bring up the subject of scanning old photos. While going through my father’s stuff I’ve found lots of old photographs a few of which are in pretty bad shape. I have a flatbed scanner and I really need to get to work on getting them scanned. But then it hit me… I also have thousands of other photos sitting around! These are mostly from the 60s through the 90s. HOW do I scan them all? Is there an affordable service that will digitize them for me? Or perhaps a special scanner I can buy? Time to start doing some research…

In my last post I mentioned how important it is to document any family history that you may know. Well, I decided to finally go through all of my dad’s old letters. Letters, for those of you who don’t know or don’t remember, are how people used to communicate in the old days. See, people would write on a material called paper with some sort of writing implement, usually a pen or pencil. In later periods they would use typewriters which are like big noisy keyboards. Then they would put them into an envelope and put a mailing address on them. The letters were then taken to a mysterious place called the Post Office where they were delivered by rugged men through all kinds of nuisance.

Continue reading ‘What did I get myself into?’ »

Here’s a clip from an article about a presentation on preserving history:

The afternoon of public readings from LifeWriters of Northwest Arkansas was part of Arkansas Heritage Month. Shiloh Museum of Ozark History in Springdale hosted the May 26 program “Saving and Sharing Our Life Stories: It’s Everybody’s Business.”

June Jefferson acts as a coach for several LifeWriting groups throughout Northwest Arkansas.

She laced tips about how to chronicle one’s own experiences with the readings and championed the value of leaving a written legacy.

“We are each responsible for preserving the history that we know,” she said.  [Read more]

That last quote is especially important.  It is our responsibility to record and preserve what history we know so that future generations may benefit from it.

I remember going with my father to his hometown every year when I was little.  I would hear stories about my ancestors from relatives who were actually there!  Now, I can’t even remember those stories and I regret not having them.  I just hope that someone in the family had the foresight to record these things (and I hope I run across someone who has).

So, remember to write down all those family stories you may have heard.  Document them and keep them with all your other genealogical records.  Maybe even make a book out of them!