I took home boxes of photos and slides when my parents passed away. Over time I worked on sorting and figuring out the identity of many of the photos. Then one day at my brothers house he handed me boxes with more historical information. Then when I was in town in June he pulled out more boxes. Then last year my cousin sent me a box. I have become the family historian. It is quite fun and interesting.
I started making calls and have learned from some long lost relatives about my family tree and online resources. Every so often I delve into the boxes and try to learn something new. I try to piece together another story or figure out when other relatives immigrated and how that plays into the decisions my great grandfather had made. Here is a photo of my Grandmother Anna's family. She is the young girl on the left. Her parents starting a soda pop bottling company. I found on the internet one of the old bottles with their logo and I have notes with the recipes for sodas!
There are three main reasons to learn more about your family history.
1. You may learn about family values and traditions you might still hold honor, or about some that have gone by the wayside that might be interesting to pursue. We have photos of the my family annual Christmas Eve fondue dinners.. which I carried on for decades with my family. I have relatives from Lithuania and Ireland. I can see the resemblance when I look at the old relatives. One photo looks exactly like my son!
2. You might share interests with your past relatives. You might see some old trinket that is on your mantel in an old photograph. I have my grandmothers old golf clubs.
3. Learning the stories about your relatives can be better than a drama or a sitcom on tv! And, these stories can be carried on throughout the generations! My Grandmother was pregnant when she married my Grandfather! I have the receipt from 1920 when he bought the furniture to set up their home.
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