Family Reunions in the Digital Age

Posted on July 2, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

I found this information in the FamilySearch User Newsletter for June 2013, but it is also on their blog in this post by Matt Wright. He has some great ideas for family reunions using modern technology to its best advantage.

When my ancestors took this family reunion photo in 1932, they didn’t have our generation in mind as much as they did what was for lunch, where little Melvin had disappeared to, and what time they might need to leave to get home. But, I’m so glad they took the time—this snapshot has turned into a valuable piece of my family story.

When you get together for your yearly family reunion this summer, what will you do to make sure future generations have access to important family memories? FamilySearch Photos and Stories provides tools to help you capture, preserve, and share your family memories for today and generations to come.

Read on for some general reunion photo ideas as well as tips for using Photos and Stories to add some flair to your reunion. If you haven’t had a chance to use Photos and Stories, you should try it out. We recently added an automated search that will find photos of your ancestors [VIDEO]. Simply click the blue button on the Photos page to log in and see what photos others have added.

General Ideas

There are certain photo-related activities that could or should happen at any family gathering. Here are some ideas.

Take a group photo—Kind of a no-brainer, but so important to capture the people at the event for future generations.

Photo slideshow—Set up a laptop or television with a looping slideshow of favorite family photos, from as many people as you can get to contribute. Make sure the photos are uploaded to FamilySearch.org so that family members can see the photos when they get home.

Photo name tags—get head shots from each attendee (or from the ancestor they descend from for larger events) and place the photos on name tags with their name to make sure everyone remembers names!

Photos and Stories

Many family reunions or get-togethers are held in buildings or other locations with Wi-Fi. Some family members can bring an Internet Hot Spot. Whatever the case may be, if you have it available, take advantage of the access to make some serious progress in documenting your family story on FamilySearch.

Photo and story presentation—Show the photos that have been uploaded, tagged, and linked to the Family Tree on FamilySearch.org. For larger groups you could arrange for a projector. For smaller groups a laptop screen would work just fine. Any photos linked to ancestors within 4 generations will show up. Visit the FamilySearch Photos page and click on the blue button to give it a try.

Identify photos—Work with individuals or groups to identify the people in photos that have already been uploaded. My family reunion picture above is a great example—I don’t know everyone in the photo, but working together we can likely fill in many of the blanks.

Give time to explore—Have a few laptops available for family members to explore the Family Tree fan chart, photos, and stories at their own pace. They can add stories to photos and may even help tag previously unknown people in photos they see.

Take time to record—A hand held digital audio recorder or video recorder can capture individuals telling stories and sharing memories that can be preserved and cherished by those to come.

Gather and Digitize

Even if you don’t have access to the Internet you can still grow your family’s Photos and Story collection and experience the magic of ancestral photos.

Assign a Photo Chairperson—As part of your reunion planning, assign someone to manage the gathering and display of family photos. This person can organize an effort to have family members bring photographs to the reunion to be digitized or copied so you can upload them to FamilySearch.

Set up a scanning station—This is easily done with a laptop and portable scanner. Once scanned, you have a copy to upload to FamilySearch. This can get people motivated and trained to add more photos when they return home. Get the word out as far ahead of the event as possible and provide reminders so that people remember to bring their photos.

Show a family presentation—This can happen quite naturally during an already scheduled family meeting. Even without Internet, you can present a slide show with screen captures of what family information is already available on FamilySearch.

Set up a photo identification table—Print out photos of unidentified people on inexpensive paper print and have a table full of family photos for older relatives to annotate who is in each photo. Transfer the information to FamilySearch to be preserved.

Reunion web page—Create a family reunion page in FamilySearch Photos and Stories and share it through email or social media.

However you approach photo sharing at your reunion you’ll be glad you did. The photos and stories of our ancestors can help create a connection that bridges generations.

Thanks Matt for this inspiring ideas. Are you having a family reunion this year?

Girls Camp – The Lord’s Amazing Air-corps

Posted on July 1, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

Girls Camp Logo

I’m in the midst of planning a prepare for the girls camp that our church does for 12 to 18-year-old girls every summer. So I thought I’d share some of what I’ve put together for that. Our main goal is for the girls to realize how amazing they are and how much they are loved. The theme we picked is “The Lord’s Amazing Air-corps.” We are making a flag, bandanas, and Berets. We also found some alligator looking cell phone cases at a local thrift store for $.25 each so we are using those to little thoughts and notes about how the girls are amazing. For the 6 weeks leading up to camp we are doing a newsletter to “train” the girls before the report to “Camp Brighton” for their last training to become part of the “Lord’s Amazing Air-corps” along with two or three midweek emails on things to think about.

One of the things I’m really excited to see how it goes is the stories. We have asked all the girls and their leaders to come to camp prepared to share a story from their own lives or their family. We are hoping to put this together in a little book so all the girls will have a copy of the stories they heard. It will be interesting to see what kind of stories they pick and how the girls respond to each others stories.

We have our final big preparation activity before camp on Tuesday night. I’ll see if I can get some photos and post them here. Here are the cards for the cell phone cases I have designed for camp. After cutting them out, I punched a hole in the corner and put them together on one of those loose leaf binding rings. The blank ones will be used at camp to share with the girls ways that they are amazing. I still have more to design for the next three weeks of “training” before camp. Feel free to use them for any non-commercial use if you find them helpful.

cards for cell phone cases

Joy Jar

Posted on June 29, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

learning
Jordan River Parkway Trail
getting girl’s camp planned
wild flowers
my “wall”
the power of music
feeding mom and dad
yummy food
finding the names of Dune’s littermates
puppies at play
air conditioning
ice cream
an understanding husband
Sunday
electricity!
Dune comforting Volt
my computer
$2 per yard fabric
air conditioning

Thoughts on Dog Leashes

Posted on June 28, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

Nairobi

Earlier this week I was discussing dog leashes with a friend. When we had a pet dog we always used a basic nylon leash or a retractable. After raising puppies for Guide Dogs for the Blind for several years I’ve become spoiled by good leather leashes. I still love retractables and we use simple nylon leashes around the house but for anything else there is nothing like a good leather leash. When we got Apex we received this cool leash with two clips and an extra ring so the leash can be long or short. If you’ve never tried one of these I highly recommend them. A fellow puppy raiser has started making them, so if you are interested go to her website. The type we use with the puppies is the versatile dog leash.

Pupdate – Dune

Posted on June 28, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

Dune

I haven’t posted about Dune in a long time. She is doing great and started to look like a grown-up. She is entering those teen years and developing a few little rebellious behaviors but nothing too bad. I finally found out all the names of her littermates yesterday when the GDB littermate book came out. Here is what I now have on the Bosworth/Cava litter born 11/11/2012:

Deanli – male
Disco – female
Dixie – female
Drexel – male
Dune – female
Durham – male
PADS Penny II – female

They are all yellow. You probably notice that one names stands out. Penny was donated to Pacific Assistance Dogs Society in British Columbia, so they named her. A number of young puppies were donated to PADS at the same time as Dune’s sister Penny. I found this cute video and there is a good chance one of these yellow labs in Dune’s sister Penny.

It is a regular practice of many of the service dog schools around the world to exchange puppies or breeders to help everyone have better genetic diversity. You may not remember but Yakira’s dad (Pike) on loan to GDB for six months from Austrailia and her mother was the result of a female donated to a school in Holland and then one of her offspring was sent back to GDB. Casey’s (Dune’s aunt) dad (Jay) was donated to GDB by an organization in Korea. I find the pups pedigrees very interesting.

I’ve neglected getting photos taken of Dune. I’m ashamed to say that I haven’t taken any pictures since Zodiac left more than a month ago. Time to make it a priority and stop putting it off.

Pupdate – Zodiac

Posted on June 28, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

Zodiac has always been attracted to sounds and somewhere along the way he learned that the doorbell usually meant something interesting was about to happen. When Zodiac hears the ding-dong, he gets all excited, barks a couple of times and runs to the door. I then ask him to step back from the door and wait calmly for me to answer it. With maturing he has made progress and the last few days he has done much better than average. Hopefully he is out growing this behavior.

Zodiac is still in phase 1 this week. I can’t help but be a little disappointed. There are three reason I can think of why he is still in phase 1:

he is have trouble with something in the training
he is sick
his trainer didn’t update his status

Next week’s report will probably give us some clues. There were two other dogs who stayed in phase 1, which might help the theory that the trainer didn’t update their status. I’d love Zodiac to be a guide dog but even more than that I want him to have a happy life. If being a guide dog will make him happy, I all for that. If he wouldn’t be happy being a guide dog, I’d like him to find another career.

Battle Field History Apps

Posted on June 27, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

Battle Apps for the Civil War

Our local news had an interesting story about smart phone apps for several of America’s famous battle fields. I wonder what it would take to make similar apps for important places and events in our own family histories. Wouldn’t that be cool!

Here are links to the story I saw

Apps mix history with technology

And here are some other news stories from the NeoTreks website:

If you could put together an app for a story project what would you do?

The Story Rug

Posted on June 25, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

Illustration by G. Bjorn Thorkelson

I was reading “The Friend” (a children’s magazine published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) recently and I just had to post this story here. It features a rag rug made from old clothes with the idea that each piece of cloth reminds the rug maker of memories and stories from their life. What a great idea for a story project!

The Story Rug

By Kay Timpson

(Based on a true story)

Who knew so many stories could be wrapped up in one rug?

We as the children can seek out our loved ones, preserving their names and their memory (Children’s Songbook, 90–91).

Katy skipped along the sidewalk toward the big oak tree at the corner of her street. The old tree made Nana’s house easy to find.

As usual, Nana was sitting in her living room, quietly braiding and sewing strips of bright cloth. The polished wooden floors of Nana’s house were decorated with beautiful rugs that Nana made herself.

“Hello, honey,” Nana said as Katy came in. Soon they were talking about what Nana called the “old days.” They looked at black-and-white photos together. Katy especially liked seeing the clothes and hairstyles her relatives wore when they were younger.

“Things were very different then,” Nana said with a sigh. “You know, we didn’t have cars or TV or cell phones.”

Katy couldn’t even imagine having to walk everywhere. “What did you do for fun, Nana?” Katy asked.

“We loved to sing together. We would gather around the piano in the evening and sing our favorite songs. Sometimes we’d sing ourselves hoarse! It was such a fun time.”

Nana looked off into the yard as if she could rewind the years and watch them over again.

Katy sat next to the coiled rug that spilled off of Nana’s lap. She traced the careful stitches with her fingers.

“I’ve been thinking,” Nana said slowly. “How would you like to make your very own braided rug?”

Katy jumped up and clapped her hands.

“I would love to, Nana! Can we start today?”

Nana chuckled. “Well, there’s something you need to do first. Go home and gather up old clothes that we can cut into strips.”

Her eyes twinkled as she leaned toward Katy, her voice quiet as if she were sharing a secret.

“That’s what makes the rug special. Because it’s made of clothes, the rug can tell the story of your life. Each braid is like a chapter in a book about you. Looking at the fabric of an old dress can help you remember the places you wore it and what you did when you had it on.”

Katy’s eyes widened. She pointed to the rug Nana was braiding.

“Do you remember all about the cloth in this rug?”

Nana smiled. “You bet I do! This red piece is from the dress I wore when you were born. I remember pressing my nose to the glass window in the nursery to get a closer look at you. You were still all pink and wrinkly.”

Katy and Nana laughed together as Nana continued to tell Katy stories from the rug. As soon as Katy got home that night, she and Mama set aside old clothes that Katy could use for her rug.

The next day, Katy took the cloth to Nana’s house. Nana showed Katy how to cut the fabric into long strips, braid them, and sew the braids together.

Every day after school Katy went to work on the rug at Nana’s house.

Little by little, the rug grew. As the days went by Katy learned many of Nana’s stories by heart. Some days she was the one who told stories to Nana.

One day, after adding a blue strip of cloth that used to be a favorite pair of jeans, Katy rubbed the palm of her hand against the colorful braids.

“Don’t you think that rug is about done?” Nana asked, looking up from her work.

“Not yet,” Katy said with a smile. She never wanted this time with Nana to end.

Our Days at Adams Mill Road

Posted on June 24, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

Our Days at Adams Mill Road by Roommates at AMR | Make Your Own Book

I put together this book for group of women (one of them is my mom) who had been roommates in the 1950’s in Washington D.C. They are a fun group and have stayed in contact for more than 50 years. Many of them contributed photos, letters and stories from their days at AMR. It is kind of amazing that 10 young women could get along so well in one household. But they did and formed a kind of family.

Do you have friends or roommates from you young adult years that you still keep in contact with? I have a few but not very many. Keeping in contact with people is not one of my strengths. Those I’m still in contact with is because they are good at in not me.