Showing posts with label family calendar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family calendar. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Capturing Family History in the Making

Who doesn't love looking at photos? Especially when captioned by someone who was there! 

As the official family historian, I'm usually the person taking the photo but also make sure I appear in at least some of the photos. I curate the photos and copy the very best into a separate digital folder to use in two bite-sized projects during December. 

Yearly Book Shows "Our Life in Photos"

To capture family history in the making, I create a yearly photo book showing the adventures my hubby and I have had in the previous 12 months. It's a bite-sized, affordable project that will keep these family memories bright. Above, a few of these annual books showing "our life in photos." 

I begin the book in November, placing photos from my "best of" folder, along with informative, light-hearted captions, into preset layouts provided by the photo book company. At the end of December, as soon as I have the last holiday photos and captions in place, I click to order (with a coupon, naturally). These books are wonderful for browsing now and I hope they will be enjoyed later by future generations. My 2020 book is in the mail right now!

Annual Calendar Combines Family and Ancestor Photos

Another bite-sized, affordable project is creating a family photo calendar for the coming year (see center of photo above). All year long, relatives send me photos that I file in a special "calendar folder" to save until November or December, when I begin placing them into the coming year's calendar.

Again, I choose from preset layouts provided by the company. Much of the time, I place a large group photo on the top page of the month and scatter individual photos on selected dates for that month. I choose a good (or amusing) photo of each relative for his or her birthday, and a photo for each couple's wedding anniversary. Often the photos are quite recent, but I also like to change things up by including baby pictures of an adult.

The calendar helps family members remember birthdays and anniversaries...and be aware of the dates of special ancestors who are gone but not forgotten. So for instance, my mother's photo is placed on the date of her birthday, along with her name.

In the last few years, a niece has had the fun of putting the family calendar together. She brings a fresh creative approach and it's a pleasure to see what she does with the calendar as she mixes faces from today with photos from yesterday.  

Now the new year is almost here, and I'm feeling happy that this much-loved calendar tradition is continuing into the next generation. Twelve months of recent family history mixed with some blasts from the distant past!

Saturday, December 30, 2017

YOU Are Part of Your Family's History

Remember that YOU, the family's historian, are an integral part of your family's history. As much fun and as rewarding as it is to research the family's past, it's also important to record the family's present-day doings for yourself and for future generations. There are so many ways to do this. Let me share two of my favorites.

Every year, I create one or more photo books showing family gatherings, travels, and other adventures that my hubby Wally and I have had. This has been my tradition for more than a decade. I also make individual photo books for special events like a big birthday or a wedding in the family.

My preference is to capture each year in photos chronologically. I explain where we are and who we're with, including detailed captions so that our descendants will be able to identify family members and friends.

One more tradition, for the past dozen years, is slotting old and new family photos into a calendar to give to close relatives. We designate each person's birthdate on the calendar with a head shot, as well as marking anniversaries with couples' photos. We also remember loved ones who are no longer with us, by including their faces among the calendar photos.

This calendar is so eagerly awaited and treasured that someone from the next generation volunteered to take over the creative duties last year. She decided there wasn't enough room for photos so she chose a larger format for the 2018 calendar and included even more photos of ancestors! Lucky me to have so many hands helping to share the family's past and present.