Blog

16
Sep

Film Is Not Dead, Especially When It Preserves Family History

Posted by | · · · · | Featured Family Stories | No Comments on Film Is Not Dead, Especially When It Preserves Family History

The date stamp at the top says January of 1967, but that was the date the film was developed. The photo was actually taken in September of 1966, as my mother and father were moving into their first house. I love this glimpse of them at the very beginning of their journey together. They look […]

Read More
15
Sep

Meet My Great-Great Grandmother on Her Wedding Day Circa 1920

Posted by | · · · · · · | Featured Family Stories | No Comments on Meet My Great-Great Grandmother on Her Wedding Day Circa 1920

Meet Norah West, my great-great grandmother on her wedding day in the 1920s. My grandma has told me stories of Norah which always make me smile. She was an avid smoker, never seen without a cigarette in her mouth and she loved her husband, Arthur Tebbett, tremendously. In fact, she loved him so much that […]

Read More
13
Sep

Family Legacy is Carried on Through The Stories We Tell

Posted by | · · · · | Featured Family Stories | No Comments on Family Legacy is Carried on Through The Stories We Tell

A legacy is etched into the minds of others and the stories they share about you. -Shannon L. Alder Meet my grandmother, Beva Juanita Gant Kiger Cheuvront. She is standing in the middle, alongside her parents, sister and brother. Her mother and father were Roxie and Clarence. Sadly, Roxie was lost to Brights Disease as […]

Read More
10
Sep

Researching My Family History Helps Me Understand Who I Am and Where I Am Going

Posted by | · · · · · | Featured Family Stories | No Comments on Researching My Family History Helps Me Understand Who I Am and Where I Am Going

Lew Galloway (1883-1962) was my great grandfather, my father’s grandfather. I never met him; he died a decade before I was born. Growing up in a small town in western Kansas, I knew the old-timers who knew Lew. They spoke of him in a way that made him seem larger than life. I have his […]

Read More
09
Sep

Professional Filmmakers Explain How to Bring Your Family Photo Archive Back to Life.

Posted by | · · · · · | Family Photo Resources | 8 Comments on Professional Filmmakers Explain How to Bring Your Family Photo Archive Back to Life.

Your memories may be in danger. Here’s why: memories are the strongest links to your ancestors, but they disappear if you don’t preserve them. And old family photos are like little time machines; they transport you to a place called memory. Recently, I experienced this time-travel firsthand when I went to visit my 101-year-old grandmother. I took […]

Read More
08
Sep

What Every Family Historian Should Know about Scanning Family Photos

Posted by | · · · · · | Family Photo Resources | 4 Comments on What Every Family Historian Should Know about Scanning Family Photos

You’ve been staring at the box for months. It’s starting to make you feel a bit guilty. You scoot it under your bed so it won’t stare at you every day. Then your mother calls and asks you about it. “Have you had a chance to start scanning those family photos? The family reunion is coming […]

Read More
03
Sep

What We Can All Learn by Looking at the World Through a Child’s Eyes

Posted by | · · · · | Featured Family Stories | No Comments on What We Can All Learn by Looking at the World Through a Child’s Eyes

This photo was taken at Fort Hood, Texas in 1958. It’s my Dad with his childhood friend, Bubba. Their birthdays were close to one another, so my grandmother and Bubba’s mother decided to have a joint birthday party. Grandma told me they needed special permission to have the party. Race was never an issue when […]

Read More
29
Aug

The Woman Who Was Called Fairytale by her Family

Posted by | · · · · · · | Featured Family Stories | 1 Comment on The Woman Who Was Called Fairytale by her Family

Her five grandchildren call her “Bajka,” which in Serbian means fairytale. My grandmother was born in Belgrade in 1943. As a young woman, she studied art history and later began working on national television as a producer and director of a series that explored Serbian history through music. During the war in Serbia, after her […]

Read More
26
Aug

Picturing the Grace and Poise of my English Ancestors

Posted by | · · · · · | Featured Family Stories | No Comments on Picturing the Grace and Poise of my English Ancestors

Meet my grandfather Oscar’s rowing team; these young men won the rower’s cup in 1924, Manor House, Tonbridge School, Kent. We called my grandfather ‘Tatita Oscar.’ He went on to join Grace & Co., thus ending up in Bolivia and Chile, where destiny would bring his son Martin, my father, to meet my mother Paula. […]

Read More
25
Aug

My Mom and Her Mom, Reminding me that My Story Started Before Me!

Posted by | · · · · · | Featured Family Stories | No Comments on My Mom and Her Mom, Reminding me that My Story Started Before Me!

Mom and her Mom, Vietnam, early 1950s. We left Vietnam in early 1975, when I was just 14 months old, and my grandparents stayed behind. I didn’t see them again until they emigrated to the United States in 1984, when I was 10 years old. My ba ngoai (maternal grandmother) was by that point in […]

Read More