Psa

[JoiseyMom]

My Aunt just passed away last Sunday. My cousin was sitting shiva at her home, so we were going through pictures every nite. Some of the pics were really really old.

People, please label your pictures!! Write down who is in them, and what the event was. My family should have done this with my Aunt after my mom died 13 years ago. One of my cousins knows more family history then anyone else, so I asked her to write things down. My DS26, kept asking quetions about our family and how we are all related. So I asked my cousin how far back she knows (I don't know further then my grandparents). So I am hoping she listens and writes down our family tree as far back as she can.

So for those that have documented their family great!

For those that haven't...talk to your older family members, get their stories and write it down before it is too late.

In my AUnts pictures I found one of a man in the service from WWII stationed in the South Pacific. He was really handsome, it was writen to my mom, and signed lovingly his name. I was like wow... my mom must have given this to my Aunt after she met my dad, which was after the war was over. But my mom never talked about her beaus before my dad. I so wish I knew the story of that guy!

I hope this can help some of you!!

Thanks .

 

[golfgal]

We did this with my Grandpa several years before he died. I am really glad we did. It is a great reminder. I have most of our photo's labeled but not all. Hardly ANY of our digital ones are labeled. Maybe I can assign DD to do that

 

[LuLuO]

My Aunt just passed away last Sunday. My cousin was sitting shiva at her home, so we were going through pictures every nite. Some of the pics were really really old.

People, please label your pictures!! Write down who is in them, and what the event was. My family should have done this with my Aunt after my mom died 13 years ago. One of my cousins knows more family history then anyone else, so I asked her to write things down. My DS26, kept asking quetions about our family and how we are all related. So I asked my cousin how far back she knows (I don't know further then my grandparents). So I am hoping she listens and writes down our family tree as far back as she can.

So for those that have documented their family great!

For those that haven't...talk to your older family members, get their stories and write it down before it is too late.

In my AUnts pictures I found one of a man in the service from WWII stationed in the South Pacific. He was really handsome, it was writen to my mom, and signed lovingly his name. I was like wow... my mom must have given this to my Aunt after she met my dad, which was after the war was over. But my mom never talked about her beaus before my dad. I so wish I knew the story of that guy!

I hope this can help some of you!!

Thanks .

I totally agree. All of my grandparents are gone and I am left searching with so many unanswered questions. Luckily my Great Aunt had a handful of photos labeled and kept a few fantastic momentos so I have been able to piece some things together thanks to finding distant family members but there are things I'll never know. Also, if you can get your grandparents to write things down for you or dictate them to a digital voice recorder, all the better. Write down your history for your kids and grandkids. It will be a great treasure to them someday.

 

[DWGal210]

Sorry for the loss of your aunt.

So true....your post is right on. We did some of this with my Grandma when Grandpa passed away a few months ago. There were books of old photos (some of them falling apart) and my aunt was scanning them so we wouldn't lose them, and asking Grandma who was each person, etc. Some of them even she didn't remember.

One thing I would really like to do is write a book/story/collection of my Grandma's and Grandpa's lives. Gpa is gone now, but I know Gma can relate some of his history. I feel like we know a fair amount all ready, but even during the time of planning Gpa's funeral I found out more.

Thanks for giving me the "kick in the pants" to get moving on this!!

 

[Hannathy]

So true! You don't realize how much you don't know until there is no one left to ask.


Good luck and sorry about your aunt.

Try to talk with the cousin because people never get around to writing things down but if you have a few friendly conversations you may be able to pick her brain and write them down yourself. There are so many questions I would like to ask now that I am older and have thought of them but now there is no one left to ask.

 

[Becky2005]

I'm sorry for your family's loss.

I agree with you for labelling! Definitely!!! Now with computers and being able to make photobooks, I'm all for that!!

I have done genealogical research and eventually old photos can crumble, etc... but if you have them scanned somewhere and then labelled, it will make everything so much easier.

I have done some but even myself, who does know how important it is, tend to get lazy -- thinking "Oh, I'll know that one" but I have pictures of my kids now that I don't necessarily know which kid it is because I have 2 of mine that look practically like twins (and the fact that I pass clothes down doesn't help!). I have to look at the backgrounds to figure it out and see how old the OTHER kids are in the picture. YIKES!!!!

 

[lsyorke]

An addition to this...don't always be the "picture taker". DH passed away in August and we discovered to late that we had very few pictures of the two of us together. I was always the picture taker. Hand the camera to someone else once in a while.

 

[dislaney]

Sorry for your loss. Great advise. I am always the picture taker and right now I have old photos that I'm not sure who they are. I need to get my mother to look at them and see if she knows who some of the people are.

One of my relatives did write a letter to her children with details of her whole life. It was so interesting to read and there were things her kids didn't know about, included in it. Just little things like memories of her early childhood, first car, meeting her husband for the first time- it was very detailed. It was a great gift and like I said included things that their mother had never mentioned to them.

 

[MichelleinMaine]

I am sorry for your loss. This is a wonderful reminder though. We were going through my mother in law's house this summer and I found albums his grandmother had made. She passed away when he was 2, so he never knew her and I never really talked to his mom about her.

These albums were WONDERFUL. She had photos (labeled!) from various trips she took as a young woman. Menus from her ship to Europe, the postcards of her hotels in the Canadian Rockies. Not only would she have the people in the pictures- she'd have things like "wonderful car that picked us up at the train station to go to the lodge. I wore my new hat with the feathers and Betty laughed when it blew off in the wind." SUCH a gift for the grandson who barely knew her and the great grandchildren (and granddaughter in law) who never did.

I'll add a PSA too- PRINT your digital pictures. We've all heard horror stories of hard drives crashing. Technology is changing fast, though, too (BETA anyone?) and who knows what the future will bring. CDs do not last beyond 5 years or so.

On the flip side- we have print images still from the Civil War! Yes, different print technology than now, but- save fire or flood- prints last. I made it my New Year's resolution to print out the digital pics I've taken over the past 10 years, labelled, of course!

One last idea, too- while you have those pics out- scan them. (I found if you have a scanner that will save them directly to a memory card, it is alot faster than saving to your hard drive.) I scanned about 4 big boxes of photos and albums from my mother in law's house. (I was on a time crunch but got it done in about 3 LONG cross eyed days.) I threw all the pics up on Shutterfly. Emailed to DH's relatives for them to add info in on any they had + gave them the opportunity to download or print ones for themselves.)

 

[JoiseyMom]

Thanks for all the kind words. I appreciate it.

And all the suggestions are wonderful. I have to look into scanning lots of the pictures I have, and I have to label all mine too!