More on Story Prompts

Posted on October 16, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

Since I’ve been working on my story prompts project (I really am making progress and I should have something to share soon.) I’ve noticed story prompts in more places. In Your Story Coach‘s October newsletter besides listing her own “story sparks” Tami also shared a Tumblr site that shares daily writing prompts. Both of these resources are intriguing and I want to use them in future projects.

What have you used to help get your memory going?

Story Prompts: update (tellingfamilytales.com)

Big Things From a Tiny Kitchen

Posted on October 15, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

Here is a fun way to share your passion about food with family and friends. The first part of the video talks about making the cook book and the last part how to make her signature dish. Below are previews of her two cookbooks. I love the idea of putting together your own beautiful cookbooks. Food is such an important part of families and our memories of childhood and good times together. These books are great inspiration.

salt from my table by Lindsay Meyer | Make Your Own Book

a fork from my drawer by Lindsay Meyer | Make Your Own Book

Inside the Mind of a Child

Posted on September 30, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

Nighttime adventures: Three tyrannosaurus rex heads tower over Nate, here in the foreground by David Niles

I love this idea for a story project! This dad not only listened to his son’s dreams but he took those stories and turned them into amazing photos. What a wonderful way to capture the imagination and personality of his son. The link below goes to the story and lots more amazing photos.

Loving Father Recreates His Son’s Dreams

25% off Blurb Books

Posted on August 27, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

Here is a great discount from Blurb.com!

Close the book on summer with 25% off any print book

25 percent. That’s about how much of the year is left. And that means summer’s almost over. Yeah, we’re not too thrilled about it either. Because we had a great summer here at Blurb.

We made books, read books, sold books. It was a summer for the books, you might say. (Well, you might not say it, but we did.)

So to commemorate our amazing summer—and yours, we hope—we’re going to do something special to help you fall into autumn (see what we did there?) with a finished book that you made yourself. We’re having a Summer Sunset Flash Sale.

Get 25% off ANY print book. Five days only. Use code SUNSET25 at checkout.

Say goodbye to summer and hello to a great book. Yours. Five days only: August 27–31. Use code
SUNSET25 at checkout.

For the next five days, you can take 25 percent off any print book. Already started one? Finish it and take 25 percent off. Been meaning to start one? Gather up those summer photos, make an instant book, and take 25 percent off. Just use code SUNSET25 at checkout.

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?

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?

More than Words

Posted on June 11, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

I’ve always love commercials with no words or only a few but I never thought of a book with no words, only sound effects. Do you have a family story that you could tell without words? It is food for thought for me. What do you think?

You can see more of the pages of “Leaf” here on Amazon. Click on the “Look in side.” Enchanting.

The Reading Mum

This is the book that inspired me to start this blog.

Leaf by Stephen Michael King has no words, only “sound effects”, and is sort of a child’s comic book. We stumbled upon it during one of our weekly library visits, but I think this one warrants purchasing.

Iris is at a very chatty, curious age. From the moment she wakes up she’s yammering away, like the lovely crow/rooster that wakes us the instant the sun pops its head over the horizon, but much cuter and less grating (mostly). This behaviour is very apparent when I read to her. She has, at the age of two and a half, mastered the Who, What, Where, Why and How.

When you’ve got a book with words to get through, this can be a tad disruptive and the plot can go wandering off in a huff in the midst of her barrage of questions. She also has a tendency…

View original post 304 more words

Carol Joy Jenson

Posted on June 10, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/872281/47f26d11181207655b51946c659e9792?ce=blurb_ew&utm_source=widget

This is a book about my aunt who died when she was 13 years old. There was a limited number of photos and information about her short life so I used every picture I had and almost everything written about her. Because it was so focused it came together very quickly.

I had a lot of fun putting this together, so much fun, that it inspired several more books in similar format and size about her parents and another aunt with more to come. These books that are not so much focused on the chronology of someones life but more about telling the story of who they where and what was important to them.

A smaller focused project like this is very doable and very satisfying to too. Keep the possibilities in mind as you think about upcoming story projects.

Adjectives for Focus

Posted on May 30, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

Making a list of adjectives that describe what you want your finished story project to be can help you stay focused on the desired outcome. Think of the words not only as guides but also as inspiration as you move forward with your project. It would be a great to post your list of adjectives where you can see them and remember why you are doing your story project. You could add sketches or pictures or anything that helps to communicate the feelings you want your project to generate in those you will share it with.

Using “My Grandma Mary” again as an example, here are a list of adjectives for what I hoped to do:

appealing (I wanted it to draw the child into the story)
accurate (I wanted it be true to the known facts)
ageless (I hoped to appeal to many age groups for many years to come)
appropriate (I wanted the information shared to take into account the age of the target audience)
courageous (I wanted the courage of Mary and the other pioneer to be felt)
determined (I wanted the reader to understand that it took determination to reach Utah)
grandmotherly (I wanted the reader to relate to Mary Taylor as if she were their own grandma)
happy (I wanted the happy times of Mary’s life and journey to be present too)
hopeful (I wanted the kids to know that they can have hope even when things are at their worst)
hungry (I wanted them to understand how very hungry she was)
inspirational (I wanted Mary’s story to inspire them)
short (I wanted to keep the story short and easily read in a few minutes)
spiritual (I wanted the reader to feel Mary’s testimony)
thankful (I wanted the reader to feel Mary’s gratitude despite the trials of her life)

Another thing to keep in mind as you start on a new story project is who the intended audience is. With “My Grandma Mary” I kept in mind that I wanted it to most appealing for kids between 5 and 10 years old. Remembering this helped with many important decisions along the way.

Try making an adjective list about a new story project or one that you are already working on and see if the process is helpful for you.