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.
Some of our family memories are captured in letters from my mother. After we moved from Omaha to Kansas City for a career opportunity, my mother and I exchanged weekly letters. I didn’t have a PC in the 1980s. Our letters were hand-written or typed. I answered questions and tossed my mother’s letters into the trash; never thinking about the family history contained in each letter. At the time, I didn’t see a need to save all the letters. Thankfully, I have found a few.
Our Family Christmas letters capture the highlights of 2001-2014. I e-mailed our letter to friends. I also typed, printed and mailed my mother’s Christmas letters during this time so I have a little bit of my mother’s story. I’m thankful for the pieces of history within these letters.
Even if you don’t have time today to make a scrapbook or permanently store the memorabilia, learn from my mistakes. Try to preserve those memories in a central location by year so when you have time to work on family history, the documents will be ready. I use a file cabinet and some hanging file folders to organize memorabilia by year. As time permits, I scan and save the files on the computer.
Memorabilia storage boxes can be purchased to store and preserve items you don’t want to put into a book. A quick search for “Memorabilia boxes” on the Internet will give you several options.
Have a great weekend; make and capture some memories. Then share them on this blog.
Dedicated to: Our son, James E Watkins, III, 1980 – 2015: Guitarist, Musician, Web and Database Programmer; Intelligent, Creative, Silly, Loving, Strong, a Fighter (battled cancer for 5 years); Not Afraid to Speak His Mind. Known as the Angry Gnome and World’s Greatest Uncle. Never forgotten; forever 34.
