Ideas
Careful...they're sharp!
These ideas can help defend your family. (They are only to be used in addition to fundamental family practices: love, morality, time, etc.) They come equipped with examples, tips, and focus on:
strengthening your current family,
recording personal history, and
learning about your ancestors.
Ideas with asterisks (*) are my own unique ideas. You may use them freely--but not for profit.
God speed!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Family Roots Chart
Family Picture Book
Modern Communications (phone, web, email, IM)
Newsletter (paper or electronic)
Reunion
Remembrance Calendar
Family Comic Book
Quote Book
Webliographies
Journals (fill-in-the-blanks, e-journals, traditional)
Recordings (audio, video)
Photo Albums (scrapbooks)
Family Tree Mural
Family Library
Genealogy Chart
Family Histories Book
STRENGTHENING FAMILIES
Family Roots Chart*
If the branches of your family tree show past family, why not use the roots of the tree to show your living family? Be careful--they grow quickly!
Example: Draw it small for a book, or large for a mural.
Tip: Adjust the name spacing on a rough draft. Since family sizes vary, the roots are uneven, unlike symmetrical family tree branches.
Family Picture Book
Do your children or spouses forget what their relatives look like between family reunions? Make a simple laminated book with family pictures and names.
Example: A funny version would be to draw family members. A child's version can be made of construction paper, family photos, and yarn. My version has removable pictures on magnetic photo pages. Surprisingly, we refer to it quite often.
Modern Communications
Phones! Sign up for a long-distance family calling plan. Cell phone companies (like Verizon) allow free minutes between users.
Websites are modern-day “homes” for families. Make your own (www.geocities.com or www.tripod.lycos.com)
Family website companies can maintain your family-friendly site for a yearly fee, $40-80, (www.myfamily.com)
Email listserves are group email addresses. You choose one and sign your family up. Then send your email to that address, and everyone gets your message (Try http://groups.yahoo.com).
Instant messaging (IM) is like typing a conversation over the internet. After signing everyone up, a beep from your computer means someone wants to talk to you.
They've typed: "Jessica said first word hotdog" Enter.
and you type: "I thought you practiced mama?" Enter.
They type "We thought for sure it'd be doggie" Enter, etc. It's like phones, but free. Like email, but instant. (Download free software from AOL or MSN.)
Newsletter (paper or electronic)
This regular publication is a great way to keep in touch with an extended family that doesn’t stay in constant communication.
Example: My Aunt Sherri makes a great newsletter and directory for my Stringham family’s older relatives, the Nielsons. We email our news to her the first weekend in April, and she emails a copy to us.
Reunion
The best way to keep up with your family: see them on a regular basis!
Example: My Eyring family does them biannually, taking turns to host and plan it. My Robertson family just started an annual one in Provo over the 4th of July.
Calendar
I know, I know. It has a stigma. But it is a great way to think of your family every day, and remember Grandma’s birthday. It’d be a neat extended family gift with more: birthdays, short bios, ancestor’s stories, etc.
Example: My sister did one for our immediate family using family pictures through the years. Those pictures evoke great memories when you are far from home.
Tip: Here's a variation: try a remembrance calendar* or book. It has one page per day for recording special family events. Birthdays, yes, but also "The day we moved to Wyoming in 1985" or "The day David graduated in 2002". Stories and corresponding traditions could boost family memory.
(The design is to remember "what great things the Lord hath done for our fathers". It has no days of the week, so you can use it, reuse it, add to it, and pass it down.)
RECORDING PERSONAL HISTORY
Family Comic Book*
The best family stories almost never have photos. (No one knows they’re coming!) They're the stories we tell at get-togethers that begin with “Do you remember when…” Why not draw pictures of them and add punch lines, comic-book style?
Example: I did this for my family with 10 stories for a Christmas gift, and it was a hit! (Besides, it’s great to see yourself as a cartoon.)
Quote Book*
This is a mini-book of a person’s memorable sayings, oft-repeated stories, or memories. This works especially well for older folks.
Example: I did a “Dad’s Top 50” quote book for my father-in-law's 50th birthday and it was a hit. Everyone at the party laughed at it, then came up with more sayings!
Tip: Writing is the most important part of family history, so do it!!!!
Webliography
Why wait for someone to die to get to know them? Publish relatives’ personal histories online now! Definitely helps the family bonds. Publishing online is the cheapest, fastest, most easily-edited form of this information. You can do this on your personal site, family site, or commercial site.
Example: I am doing this on my Eyring family website. So far I have 3: my timeline, a great-great-grandfather's history, and the early history of my grandpa, who's alive. Hopefully it will grow. (Hint hint to the Eyrings--send me your bio's!)
Fill-in-the-Blank Books
Excellent for those who feel overwhelmed with personal history. It's like a school workbook, except you know all the answers, because it's your life!
Example: My Family Tales (shown at left) offers books starting at $45 www.myfamilytales.com. Family History Products makes electronic history-compiling CDs and e-books. See them at www.familyhistoryproducts.com
Journals
There are so many fabulous ways to do it now. Keep a notebook, type a computer file, or make an audio journal on tape.
Example: Check out these nifty computer journals at www.familyhistoryproducts.com
Recordings
The sound of a family is a rare and precious commodity these days. Don’t plan, just do it. Pull out a tape recorder or computer mike for some audio or a camcorder for video and record anything! You can transcribe or transfer it to CD or DVD later.
Tip: My sister can transcribe tapes into computer files, my brother and my husband can make DVDs from video or computer files. Email me if you need their help with a project.
Photo Albums
Photos are windows into people’s lives. Everyone should preserve their photos and “scraps”. Especially important: record photo facts soon after the event.
Tip: Modern scrapbooks are an artistic display of photos, stories, and family history. But beware: getting carried away with cute embellishments and looks will make you lose your people and those precious stories!!
LEARNING ABOUT ANCESTORS
Family Tree Mural*
This is a personal, beautiful blend of family history and art. It is a large painting of your family tree with names and dates. Since it never changes, this art can stay in the family forever, like those old family tapestries.
Example: I am making a formal one for our front room. I'm only including names and birth/death dates; one branch will be bare, because I know no names on that side yet. I'm making touchable one for children, too.
Tip: Write the names on the tree in marker, so it's easy to add names as you find them. You could style it clean and modern, or like a realistic tree, or silly with objects and pictures all over the branches.
Family Library
One person in the family should act as family librarian. He/she loans out unique family books to members. He/she could also maintain the list of published works, personal histories, and genealogy progress. He/she might also be the family research expert.
Example: On my Eyring side, my Uncle Paul keeps a huge database of family history, while Aunt Susan has several personal histories filed away.
Genealogy Chart
Several companies will print out your genealogy onto a large poster for $20-$30 dollars. Or you can also buy nice fan- or circle-shaped charts and fill in the blanks yourself.
Example: Try Digital Roots http://roots.cs.byu.edu/ for printouts. For fill-in-the-blank charts, go to your community family history clubs, scrapbook stores, or to the Deseret Book store, under family history, for some modern geneology charts, shown left: www.deseretbook.com/store.
Family Histories Book
Why should strangers be our heroes, when they can be found in our own families? Publish a book of one or more personal histories, and distribute to the family. Everyone learns about their family in their own home.
Example: My Aunt Pam compiled a book of Bosen American pioneers, and my husband and I love reading it. How fantastic they were, and what adventures they had! It makes me wonder about my other ancestors...
Well, what are you gawking at? Pick one and do it!
And happy shooting.
Have other ideas? Write me, and I'll post them: [email protected]
Dave and Liz Robertson
Family
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