Does anyone here have a family history book to record stories that have been pasted down in the family. To put names and stories with the pictures in the photo albums? When a loved one dies the stories that they have not shared with other members of the family or writen down are gone forever. All of the many boxes of photos you have over the years do not have names on them, do not have stories to go with them, so your family looks at them and then trashes the stories of a lifetime. People think of passing on a legacy they tend to think of money what about their story and the legacy of knowing who you are and where you came from. I ask my mom who is 90 often about pictures that she has that I have no idea who the people are or where they were when the pictures were taken. She has no idea, the picture was given to her with no story. What are you doing to preserve your family history?
It is not exactly a family history book, but what i am doing is similar to that, Pat. My oldest son asked me to write down some of the stories and information about my parents and my life with them growing up. I decided to do that and think that it is a good way for the family to have some preserved memories. I know that there are things that I think of all the time, and wished i had asked my parents more about when they were still alive. I started a little family blog, using Google Blogger, which is both free and simple to use. I just write down family stories as i remember things, and as the mood to write it hits me. It comes as a link to my facebook and google+ accounts when I have written something; so it is easy to alert everyone when a new story is posted. It also has a place for comments, and that way, people can read the story, and if they want to say something about it, then that becomes part of the family history, too. Plus, I can add pictures when I have appropriate ones to add to a story. My blog link is always on the bottom of my posts as my signature, so it is also easy to share online when you want to do that. If you are thinking about writing a family history book, this might work well for you, too.
I did the Geology thing on my father's side..It was hard to do because all have passed on and we have a very common name..Fortunately I discovered someone had do some early research and I added to that. I spent Months on the free online sites..I would wake up in the middle of the night and jump on the computer..Its a shame that these free sites allow entries that are not true!! One of my GGG Grandmothers had childbirth when she was in her 40's!! She also had a child after my GGG Grandfather was dead by 3 years!! I made a booklet of what I had found out and also a slide show of that booklet. Each of my children got a copy..
My dad wrote some of his history in a notebook, mostly consisting of his war time experiences. After he passed, I found the notebook and still have it. I found lots of other stuff too. He had five different wills. Seems that every time he got mad at my brother or me, he changed his will. None of the wills mattered though. By then he had gotten rid of everything anyway. He gave me his car, an older Ford, and I had to sell the house to pay mom's bills.
When my husband's great uncle turned 100 in 2013, one of his uncles had wanted to create a family history book. He actually had created a page in Facebook to contain pictures and articles all about their clan. Unfortunately, not one had contributed so nothing was added in that page. For my family, we have none of that and probably cannot even organize a plan because my father did not introduce us to his cousins. All we know is one of my father's brother who had died a long time ago and although I know some of our cousins with that uncle, we are not really close as to start a conversation.