Recently, my husband, Jim & I attended a local chapter meeting of The Compassionate Friends (https://www.compassionatefriends.org/), a world-wide organization that provides friendship, understanding and hope to parents, grandparents and siblings who have lost children. During the discussion, one person said; “I don’t know what I would do if I lost my pictures in a tornado!”…
Author: Arlene Watkins
The Importance of Memories!
When our kids were babies, I had my hands full. They were two and a half years apart in age and a whole world of difference in personalities. James was quiet. He stuck to me like glue. He would be in the kitchen when I was in the kitchen. In the family room when I…
Protecting Your Photos and Other Files
We store photos on our phones, SD cards, USBs, computers, external hard drives, and in the cloud. There are many services that seem to protect us with automatic backup to the “cloud” or to external hard drives. Free “cloud” storage sounds like a great idea but please read the Terms of Service – before trusting…
Organizing Family Memorabilia
I have to admit, I am a OneNote junkie. Yes, I use OneNote to organize everything. Why do I love OneNote so much? What I love about OneNote is the ability to gather many types of files and links in one place. For example, in my notebook “Family History & Photo Notes, ” I gather…
Organizing Photos – What works for you?
I don’t know about you but I love taking pictures. With the invention of the digital camera, a whole new world was opened up! We have improved our lives in one way and complicated our lives in another. Remember the “good old days” when you took a few pictures , waited to fill up the…
Family Reunions
Last weekend, The Watkins Family Reunion was held. It had been many years since our last reunion. This type of event gives us opportunities to gather family stories. Many of us brought pictures that everyone enjoyed. A trip back to the “good old days.” This week’s photo is one of those. Here’s some ideas for…
Finding Family Stories – in letters!
If you are like me, you didn’t take time to write down family stories. The question now is “how can I find these stories?” Perhaps you have siblings, aunts, uncles or cousins that could tell stories for your family history. Friends of our son occasionally share stories; which makes me want to hear more stories. …
Finding Family Stories – in the least expected places
Last week, I talked about the importance of writing stories down so the details don’t get lost or distorted. Stories build more than a family genealogy chart. Stories tell future generations about our family. You know — the real people; their personalities; their experiences. I’m talking about the stories that our Grandparents told about “the…
Welcome to Heritage-Memories.
This blog will focus on ways to keep family memories alive thru stories. I will share some ideas on how to organize, the tools I use and options to preserve these memories for future generations. But why are these memories so important? Today is our son’s 39th birthday. There will be no cake, no gifts,…