I loved your ideas of giving Auntie the photo album to help trigger memories, and of watching the tape later and thinking of further questions - pity you apparently didn't get the chance. It's true that a family history comes alive with biographies and memories of our recent ancestors. Also true that if you ask Granny a bare question she may claim not to remember the answer, but if you spend the time and let her reminisce in her own way, interjecting the odd leading question for clarification, you get a lot of valuable information. So write down those stories your Granny told you when they pop into your head - and don't forget your own! Liz Davies ----- Original Message ----- From: "Don W" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, February 08, 2008 1:47 AM Subject: [NYERIE] Adding depth to your family history > After reading most if not all of the recent posts it > reminded me of something I said I would do shortly > after my aunt passed away suddenly. She was the last > one in my parents generation. > To often we look at our family genealogy as just > names, dates, and places. > On one of my trips back to Buffalo, I was able to get > my aunt to sit down at a table and using a tape > recorder and movie camera (not facing her) was able to > get her to go through the old photos that she had > saved. > The stories she told that I had never heard and the > family details that I would never find looking at > microfilm, city directories etc helped me by providing > clues that she did not realize she knew. After listing > to her that day and watching the video that night I > wished I had asked more questions about my dad's and > my grandmother's life when they were alive. > My generation does not write letters anymore. The only > letters my family has is just a couple from my dad and > uncle during WWII. I stopped when I married the girl I > was writing. > I hope that some of you will take the time to write > these memories and stories down and add them to your > family history files. > I know I am going to try to start this evening by > opening a word document and try a write a couple of > sentences every night. > Even I have a few stories that my future grandchildren > or great grandchildren might enjoy reading. > I am also going to put into words the stuff I remember > about my dad and grandmother for the future family > historian that go beyond just dates. > > Thanks to everyone who gently reminded me of what I > said to myself several years ago that I was going to > do but everything else got in the way. > > Have a great weekend > Don W > > > ____________________________________________________________________________________ > Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. > http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > >