Stories and Reminiscing

Stories are a wonderful way to share family history. I love getting with family members and taking about experience we all had together. It is fun to hear the different view points and perspectives. Especially as you grow older.
There are times when a younger person looks up to someone older, yet the older one remembers the younger as being a tag-a-long or just plain annoying. As you get older you can share stories about the past and let that person know who much they were looked up to many years ago.
There are also the stories that are retold by parents to different family members at different times. Stories often take on a life of their own and morph. There is usually as aspect of truth at the beginning but as time goes on, it becomes a creature of it's own. By talking about these stories, you can usually find the truth to know what was real and what was added with each telling.
When all is said and done, it is beneficial to have someone write down what was learned. A line here or there for a full on essay. Something that can be shared generations from now. This is what makes us real. Knowing that we really lived and experienced life. That was have experiences out of the ordinary along with the day to day living that continues on through the generations.

Labeling Photos

As many of us know, it takes a lot of time to label photos. We also know how frustrating it can be to have photos of family members; yet, have no idea who they are. Today I took a guess at a family photo. I based my names upon the ages. I fortunately still have someone alive who knew all these people so I can check my work, but many times we are not as lucky. And even this person who is alive, may not remember the names of his aunts and uncles. The old age thing can be a killer, no pun intended.
There are many different online services where we can upload our photos and then have them printed. I know that Shutterfly will print on the back of the photo any details you include. I personally think that if you are going to print photos, it is worth taking the time to write in the detail with a service like this. If you are going to keep them in an electronic format, give them a long name! There is nothing wrong with having a detailed name so you will always know who was in the photo. In organizing your photos on your computer, you can create folders for each event in each month in each year, so you have a detail from that side as well.

So go forth and label!