Friday, January 22, 2010

52 Weeks to Better Genealogy - Challenge #3

Assess yourself is the topic for week 3. I would bet everyone that read this challenge said to themselves "uh-oh". Here we are (I hope I'm not speaking for just myself) searching for weeks, months even years for so many of our elusive ancestors. If we do find a complete document (with a name for the mother or father besides Unknown) we jump for joy, blog and tweet about it. When we find a document with only sketchy information, we are hopeful for clues but grumble under our breath. Knowing how these highs and lows impact our research and approach to it, we would never dream of putting future genealogist through the same, right? Wrong!

Do we take for granted we will be around with plenty of time to document the important things in our life? Probably. Do we think that no one will be interested in where we lived, worked or what we looked like 50 years from now? Definitely!

While I have not taken the time for any type of journal to chronicle my life, I have made an effort to preserve my photographs. Once I bought my first digital camera, preserving photos became much easier. I have photos backed up on CDs, jump drives and online photo storage services. I always try to note the place and date of the photos but not the names of those in the photos. I will have to make improvements in that area.

I have my childhood scrapbook that I gave up on sometime in high school. I should complete as much as possible and put in an archival album. Then there are those boxes of pre-digital photos that need to be scanned or at least labeled and stored properly.

Now that I have created a list for myself, no promises or even estimates on when I will complete this. I'm going to be around for a long time and nobody is going to be interested in me 50 years from now anyway!

3 comments:

  1. People will be interested in your life, just like you're interested in your ancestors' lives. :)

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  2. I commented on another blog today about this very thing! I have already separated most of the photos of my kids and myself and my husband and am going to put them in some kind of order. I have written all my memories of my youngest child and paired with photos and am working on her siblings. It is a fun and emotional project. I wish my parents had done this for me......

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  3. Ah, they'll be curious. They'll say things like, "Did she really wear her hair like that?" or "What was he thinking when he put that shirt on?" or [my favorite], "Did he really marry 2 women named 'Alice'?" [rolling eyes heavenward] And hopefully, tho', we'll have a few secrets that'll drive 'em wild as they try to find 'em out. You know, just passin' on the "love" and all. ;)

    Caroline

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