Preserve Your Past to Ensure Its Future ā Susan Dress
Take a look around your home: do you have boxes of photos stored in a closet? Family documents tucked in a drawer? Old VCR or video tapes stored under the bed? Or perhaps a quilt from your grandmother hidden away in the linen closet, or a tool your dad used all the time sitting on your work bench?
These items are part of your family heritage; but if no one knows about them, then no one knows their significance, and a bit of your heritage can be lost forever. Preserving these items is a bit of work, but the results, and the journey towards saving them, can be rewarding.
Start by finding those items. Take advantage of a rainy afternoon to start reviewing and sorting them. Or plan a family potluck or barbecue as a time to work on your memories. If youāre working with printed photos, start by labeling as many of them as you can, adding not just names but other information if possible. Was this group together for someoneās birthday? For a graduation party? A 25th anniversary? Added information could help someone else with their genealogy search.
Then consider digitizing these photos so you can share them easily. If you donāt have a scanner at home, check with your local library or consider renting a scanner and sharing the cost and results with your extended family. Another option is a phone app, such as Googleās PhotoScan, which allows you to scan on the go and share instantaneously. Once youāve gone through your photos and documents, putting them in archival boxes will help keep the originals from deteriorating.
Next, look at objects in your home that have a family history to them. Make notes about those objects and stick them in your āimportant papersā file; or paste a note to the back of that framed document or autograph. Let your children know why this item is important to you, and if thereās someone in the family youād like to have it when youāre gone. While youāre digitizing things, take a picture of those items and share them. I have a very battered wooden potato smasher on my kitchen counter. It looks very ragged because my mother used it for more than just smashing potatoes, so someone who didnāt know might just pitch it. But if you look closely at it, the handle is worn smooth as glass from years of her handling it; and that handle has been very carefully mended at some point with 3 tiny brads healing the crack in it. Every time I pick it, I remember her hands and the hard work they did.
Something else to consider would be a trip with your family through your physical past. If you grew up in another town, or another state, can you take a family trip there? Show them the street you lived on, where your best friend lived, the school you attended, and the park you played in. You may be surprised doing this, by the things you find yourself remembering. Visual cues can be a great trigger for adding detail to half-remembered events.
And while weāre talking about visual cues, consider creating a memory box using objects from their past for older relatives. These can help you connect with someone living with dementia or Alzheimer's. The sense of touch can trigger memories that canāt be reached by other means.
These links can give you more tips on preserving your past:
