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Subject: [GM-L] Keeping Family History Alive
Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2000 13:09:13 EDT

This was sent to another list & comes to me third hand but it seems as if it
offers some inspiration as well as some good advice. In short: Do it before
it's too late.

My comments and some helpful hints follow the poem . . .

"Notes on a Family Album" by Mary F. Heisey

I sit before some photographs
of people I don't know.
Mom said, "They are your relatives,"
But that was long ago.

She used to get the album out
And put me on her knee:
Then pointing, with a story line
Tell family history.

The captions used were all her own,
Each time developed new.
We never thought to write them down
Before her life was through.

I see some family features now:
I have begun to care.
Since Mom is gone, I cannot ask,
"Whose picture is that there?"

If you have photo's in a book
Without a caption, too.
Go get a pen and label them,
Or you may wonder, "Who?"

-------------

I make a practice of assigning myself that I must make a double sided page
each week. This is the only way my 4 children & 3 grandchildren will know my
grandparents and those relatives who came before me & are now gone. It's
only easy for me to do because I keep it very simple & I keep my basic
supplies in a basket next to my bed. If I had to carve out time for fancy
stuff it wouldn't get done. This way I have at LEAST 52 new pages every year,
no matter how lazy I am.

If my page of the week isn't completed by Saturdan night thatt's when I sit
with my husband & while we watch a movie I complete a page, which takes
perhaps 10 to 15 minutes for each side. If you've thought of doing this &
have concerns that it will take too much time, I'll volunteer to help you.

Does anyone think it would be a good idea to start a group that would be an
"encouragement" circle for those of us who are interested in making family
albums as a way of keeping family history alive?

a fellow researcher,
Susan McMackin Reynolds

Connect to me & others who share your GENEALOGY interest at
http://www.planetall.com/main.asp?s=1043&cid=966275

Need More Computer Memory to keep track of dead relatives?
http://www.myaffiliateprogram.com/u/amnesia/b.asp?id=1062

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