Research to identify your ancestors

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Leave a Legacy

Note...see the very beginning of this blog for important steps on how to get started on your genealogy).


Remember that you will be a lot of people's ancestor some day and that it is important for you to leave your posterity a legacy of you.

* Compile your personal life story so your posterity will know about you and your life.

* Keep a journal of sacred things in your life and your special spiritual thoughts that will comfort, teach, and guide your family.

* Write about and display your talents, hobbies and abilities so that your family can know these things about you.

* Teach your children the importance of doing genealogy and Family History and show them how to do it so they develop a habit and love of the work.

Make working on genealogy a regular habit for the rest of your life. Be sure to keep up on the latest technology and the exciting new changes and developments that are occurring around us all the time in the field of genealogy and family history.

Most importantly.....have fun and enjoy!

Genealogy/Family History Project Ideas...#10

Note...see the very beginning of this blog for important steps on how to get started on your genealogy).

….. Talents, Hobbies, and Interests in Other Areas ……


There are many ways and things that occupy our time. Some of them, hopefully, have become a nice extension of our self...meaning they have helped us become the better person we are. Within this genealogy blog, I have offered many project ideas that can be undertaken with the purpose of leaving our legacy (something of our self) for our posterity. In this way we will be better known and understood by our family. Some of the talent projects were specific. If you have talents and hobbies in other areas not mentioned, you might consider compiling or displaying the information in some way as to express your interests and talents so that your posterity will come to know you better......and maybe discover these same talents and hobbies in themselves.

Genealogy/Family History Project Ideas...#9

Note...see the very beginning of this blog for important steps on how to get started on your genealogy).


….. A Project...If Your Talent and Hobby is Photography ….


I realize that lots of people enjoy taking photographs. This is one of the basic ways that most people share their life with their family....and family photos are passed on from generation to generation. Some people concentrate mostly on taking photos of their family....some concentrate on scenery, or both. And I also know that some people have boxes and boxes of these loose photographs tucked away, hoping to organize them.... someday.

Please find a solution for this dilemma and act upon it NOW. Photos are very precious, especially family ones. They need to be in an acid free environment as much as possible, to preserve them, because photos tend to deteriorate with the passing of time. They need to be in albums and be somewhat organized to be truly enjoyed. I am not talking mainly about the fancy "Scrap booking" hobby. This can be very time consuming and costly. There are easier ways to organize photos. The following are some steps I will share with you to help you on your way:

* Begin by sorting your family photos into envelopes. I have an envelope for each of my children and their own family. If the photo contains that family, I put it in that envelope. I have envelopes labeled "Grandparents", "Siblings", "Aunts & Uncles", "Friends", etc. You can also do the same thing with scenery or photos of trips.

* When that is done, take one envelope at a time and sort the photos into time periods. On the back of your photos (and with a photo safe pencil), put the year, the names of who is in the photo and the place it was taken. You can use smaller envelopes to put photos from each time period.

* Now you are ready to think about how you want to do your albums. You can purchase "Photo Pages" which are acid free poly sheet protector type 8x10 size pages. These are sectioned off to hold 3x4 or 4x6 photos and they fit into 3-ring binders. All you have to do with these is slip your photos into the sections.

* Another way, is to purchase acid free cardstock paper and 3-hole punch it and put them into a 3-ring binder. Get some acid free self adhesive photo corners which slip onto the corners of your photos and then can be mounted onto your cardstock pages. By the side of each photo you can write a little bit about the photo. I have seen albums done like this and the person has used a few cute stickers to spice up the page. One nice thing about using the photo corners is that you can pull the photo out of them if you need to read the back of it, or if you want to make copies, give them away, or whatever. If they are glued in, you cannot do this.

* Some people use acid free photo storage boxes. These are 3x5 or 4x6 size boxes that come with tabbed index separators that you write on, giving them some kind of a name or date depending on how you want to organize your photos that will be in that box. Behind the separators are all the photos pertaining to the name or date that is on the separator. If you want to view the photos behind one of the named separators, you just pull out the whole bunch of loose photos, flip through them and put them back behind the separator when you are through.

Quite a few years ago I used to arise very early in the morning, just before the sun came up, to go for my 2-mile walk. I observed the beautiful sunrises, so I got into the habit of bringing my camera along with me. I would take various photos of the beautiful sky in the morning and also began to take photos of the gorgeous sunsets at night. I ended up with stacks of these beautiful photos. Not very long ago, I decided to do something with them, as I felt they were something that I had gained much pleasure from. I also felt that these photos represented a part of me and that I could share them with my family, but in a more organized way. I bought a 3-ring binder and filled it with acid free colored cardstock paper. I sorted through the photos and chose the most beautiful ones and randomly glued them onto the cardstock. I chose not to write anything next to the photos, as I felt they spoke for themselves. I gave the album the name "Sunrise--Sunset Album, Photos taken by (me)". I wrote an inside cover page to my family explaining about the album and how I enjoyed the sunsets and sunrises.

All these methods of organizing photos are good. It all depends on how you feel you want to do yours. I have offered ideas for simple, easy ways. There are lots of ideas you can find if you want to do yours differently.



Sunday, February 1, 2009

Genealogy/Family History Project Ideas... #8

Note...see the very beginning of this blog for important steps on how to get started on your genealogy).


----- Keep a Daily, Weekly, or Monthly Personal Journal -----

A personal journal is a recording of a person's daily happenings in their life that have significance and importance. Ideally, this journal should be something we add to all our life. It may be entered into a hard bound entry book, a 3-ring binder, a spiral notebook, or such. You can even type it into a word processor, if you like. Some of the things it might contain are:

*Goals, hopes, and aspirations.
*Work experiences.
*Problems and how they were resolved.
*Joys and sorrows with family members.
*Relationships with others.
*Our deepest thoughts and spiritual feelings.
*Faith-promoting experiences.
*Significant personal and family events.
*Triumph over adversity.
*Special learning experiences.
*Personal spiritual testimony.
*Counsel for future generations who will read your journal.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Genealogy/Family History Project Ideas....#7

(Note...see the very beginning of this blog for important steps on how to get started on your genealogy).


…. A Project...If You Have a Talent of Writing, Painting, or Music ….

We are told that we each have our very own talents. Talents come in different packages. Some talents are not thought of as talents, such as the ability to make other people feel good about themselves, or to always have a happy smile so that you make others smile, too.
Then there are the naturally thought of talents such as writing, painting, music, etc. The following are ideas of how you can leave your posterity a legacy of yourself through these types of talents that you may possess. AND ALWAYS REMEMBER....TO KEEP YOUR TALENTS YOU MUST USE THEM.

If you have the talent....
…write a book of poems or verses.
…write a book of short fictional stories.
…write some songs and put them into a binder.
…paint or draw some pictures and put them into a portfolio.

Perhaps you have been called upon to write a program or a lesson for something. Maybe you have prepared talks for Church. Put a copy together and include a letter to your posterity explaining about it.

Quite a few years ago, I wanted to find a cookbook containing ALL Rhubarb recipes. I could not find one. So I went to the Library and brought home an arm full of cookbooks. I went through each one and each time I found a rhubarb recipe I typed it on an 8x10 sheet of paper. I made an index, a cover, wrote that I compiled the recipes and the date I did it, and I stapled it all together. I had maybe 40 pages of recipes......I had created my own Rhubarb Cookbook. This is something that my posterity will end up with. They will know that I enjoyed Rhubarb.

During one period of my life, I was always jotting down on small bits of paper my thoughts, impressions, or any inspirations I felt. I had several large manila envelopes of these bits of paper. I thought about these last year, and figured after I left this life that whoever went through my effects would probably just toss them. I didn't want that to happen because they were part of me. So I took a 3-ring binder, filled it with alternating colored cardstock paper, and began pasting each piece of paper onto the cardstock. I would cut around the whole block of wording to form interesting shapes of paper. I made a title sheet for the binder that had my name on it and the words "Her Thoughts, Hopes, and Strivings". I included a letter to my family at the beginning of the binder, explaining about the binder and why I did it. Here again, is a way to leave a legacy of oneself for their posterity.

Our talents were meant to be shared not only today, but in the decades of the future... even after we have left this earth.