Not much on my agenda this time of the year so thought I'd start trying to get the first deep cleaning and sorting from the move three years ago. I opened a Pandora's box when I found bags of photographs and paperwork I had stuck in a bottom drawer! I have spent 2 days sorting through hundreds of pictures and some genealogy papers. I am making stacks of photos and papers for various family members that pertain to their branch of the family and still have stacks to sort through. I'm not sure how I ended up with so much but now is the time to send it to those that are, or hopefully will be interested. Has anyone else been chosen, for whatever reason, to be the keeper of family photos and genealogy? Who do you pass it on to? So many of the younger generations are not interested. I only have one child that is interest so, fair or not, he is getting most of our family's history. At least if someone develops an interest, they will be available. The other branches of the family photo's etc. is going to the oldest relative to be shared as they desire.
I have some photos to pass on to hubbies cousin as they pertain more to his branch but came to us through their grandmother. When there are more than two husbands to a wife the paper work increases even more. Thankfully one of my Aunts is doing the other half of my grandmothers life, I am working on it from my grandfathers side (her first husband). And since my oldest daughter is from my first marriage I am working on that side of the family for her (I gave her all the photos from that marriage years ago). Photos and papers for my hubbies side of the family will go to our youngest daughter. One of hubbies Aunts would rather sell old photos than keep them so family photos are in our possession and will go to our youngest to keep anyone else from getting them.
I am the chosen one in my immediate family. I have a large box full of photos, documents and notes under my desk. I have taken over this task from my father, who started many years ago by collecting data from his relatives in Germany. I know very few of these relatives personally, but technology is a wonderful thing and I have 'met' them via social media. My kids don't show much interest yet, but some of my relatives overseas are very interested.
Thankfully my daughter Paige is very interested in the family lineage, plus she's also the sentimental one, so that's a perfect setup for me to pass on to her all the family stuff, when I'm ready. I have a couple projects in mind (once my life settles down some!!!) so that all 5 of my kids have some small connection with their heritage. One is to scan in to my computer all the old black and white photos from my folks...there really aren't that many, so it's not like it's going to take a lot of time. Then I'll categorize and organize them, pick the best/most representative of family, print out hard copies and put them into small albums, make a CD of the images, and present an album and a CD to each of the kids with the master to Paige, as Keeper Of The Family Stuff. That's from my side of the family. I have very little from my ex, so I can't include much of his stuff. I have no problem including what I can, because he is part of the kids' heritage too. It just won't be much. Another is to do a similar project for the few other things I have from my folks....letters my Dad wrote to my Mum when he was in the Merchant Navy in WWII, some old card, a pay card my Dad had when he was working at the shipyards before the war when he was in his teens...do the scanning and such of them, print them out and present them in a small scrapbook to each of the kids as well, again with the master copy to Paige. The more current photos (the images of my kids when they were little and growing up) will be my last project. It will be similar to the above projects too, with the final result of presenting each of the kids with an album of their nuclear family that shows the history of Mum and Dad and their siblings, and the growth of the family from Parent's marriage to kids' adulthood. Once all that's done, I feel like I've done my job as current Keeper Of The Family Stuff, and have successfully passed the torch!
Memories in a book. I started this book when my granddaughter was born. (18 years ago) Every person in our family is in this book. Starting with my great grandmother. My husband came from a family of 11 children. So it took awhile to do. I've tried to keep it up to date, but did not do well. Most pictures now are in the computer or on a disc. The book was fun to do. One section is words from the elders. I had family members write a little something about themselves or about the past. I was surprised with the answers. My mother wrote about inventions. Her biggest was the invention of plastic. Mine was the first tv I ever saw when I was 5 years old. I need to ask Ashlyn if there is one thing that stands out to her in her 18 years. A few pages from the book. Cover with all family members. ( photo / image / picture from Donna S's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Donna S's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Donna S's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Donna S's Garden )
I really like your scrapbook. Especially the information you have added explaining the pictures. I have made several of them adding information also and it is really time consuming.
My poor son got all my family photos passed on to him (multiple photo albums and family photos) and both sides of my families genealogy. Fortunately he didn't balk when I delivered the bin. Some are even up on the livingroom wall at his home. It is amazing how many photos can be collected over a few generations. They can also be quickly lost with any unexpected disaster (only a few photos from my husband's side because of a fire) I have only one framed professional photo of my mom as a child in my possession now which is perfect. It was a relief to have the huge photo bin passed on. I have the equivalent of one large photo album saved digitally if I ever want to reminisce.
