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Archiver > CyndisList > 1998-12 > 0913115874


From: Cyndi Howells <>
Subject: Tis the season...to collect family information and memories
Date: Tue, 08 Dec 1998 03:17:54 -0800


Hi all -

The holiday season is a time for many wonderful memories to be
made. It also is a time for the genealogist - the official family
historian - to gather information, stories and memories from family
members and preserve them for the future. Keeping that in mind, I'd
like to encourage each of you to do several things this holiday season:
1. Buy plenty of film and take a lot of pictures and video tape.
2. After having the pictures developed, be sure to WRITE names
and dates on the backs of the photos.
3. Photocopy plenty of blank family group sheets and take them
with you to each family gathering. Sit and get to know your
cousins
and their families as you fill out these sheets.
4. Talk with the oldest living family members and ask them about
their families, their parents and siblings. Don't just ask
them for
names and dates. Instead, get them to reminisce about their
family.
Ask them to tell you about holidays when they were children.
5. Share and/or ask about family recipes, especially for those
dishes
and treats that have special meaning for your family during
the holidays.
If Grandma is making her famous cookies again, be sure to ask
her to
write down the recipe. Better yet, scan a copy of the original
recipe
written in her own hand or in her mother's writing. Also try
to get the
story behind the recipe. Whose was it? Where did it come from?
Why
did it become such an integral part of the family tradition?

For more ideas on how to gather this type of information, be sure
to see the "Oral History & Interviews" category on my site:
http://www.CyndisList.com/oral.htm
For ideas on preserving your family memories and photographs see
the "Photographs & Memories" category:
http://www.CyndisList.com/photos.htm

And be sure to read this wonderful online article by Myra
Vanderpool Gormley, an extraordinary genealogist:
Linking Past Holidays To The Present
http://www.ancestry.com/columns/Myra/Shaking_Family_Tree12-25-97.htm

This time of year is particularly emotional and wonderful for me
and for my family. As we prepare the same recipe of Sour Cream
Sugar Cookies that we have every year of my life, we think of my
great-grandmother from whom the recipe was passed down. When I'm
baking cookies and realize yet again how much I miss my Grandmother
Ingle's special pinwheel cookies, I give myself another kick in the
behind and wish I had asked her about that recipe. And as I
decorate the tree and place old family ornaments on it, I remember
my grandparents and my parents and I know that all is right with
the world thanks to my memories. What I wouldn't give to receive
another package of Christmas pajamas from my grandparents in
California or to be with my grangparents on Christmas day! Remember
to cherish your family this holiday season and gather those family
memories to heart, as well as on paper, tape and film.

Enjoy yourselves,
Cyndi

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Cyndi Howells Puyallup, Washington


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