Sunday, December 30, 2012

Welcoming in the New Year and Sharing Memories Project

New Years Eve - Sydney
It is New Years Eve and I am enjoying a quiet moment checking out Geneabloggers before we head into the centre of Sydney with some friends to see the Fireworks!!  Today there is a post advising that
Each Sunday, Olive Tree Genealogy offers a new blogging prompt under the heading Sharing Memories – Genealogy Journal Writing.  As this blog points out we spend ages researching, collecting bits and pieces and writing down stories of our great great grandparents, forgetting that we have stories of our own to share as well. 

When researching my family tree, I often sigh and wish my ancestors had recorded more of their life, kept a diary and or kept letters and newspaper cuttings.  As the Olive Tree Genealogy Blog points out, we should think of coming generations and how exciting it will be to find a record of our memories and experiences that will give them a better understanding of the time we lived in.

This project reminded me of a book that our family put together for my mother at Christmas time about ten years ago.  I wrote to all family members, sisters, grandchildren etc. a couple of months before Christmas and asked everyone to write down a couple of short stories that they could remember about our mother/grandmother.  It took a little bit of nagging and quite a few reminders but finally I was able to put together a book with everyone's stories and photos.  My mother loved the book and still reads in when she has a quiet moment.  Also, it was interesting, that on that Christmas day everyone in the family took turns for a quiet moment to read the stories that everyone had contributed.

With this in mind, my New Years resolution is to start writing down some of my memories.  What better way to start than to join in Olive Tree Genealogy's  Sharing Memories – Genealogy Journal Writing project. 


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