Letting Go Of Family History

My mother started me down the path of tracing our family tree many years ago.  She handed to me handwritten family group sheets and pedigree charts which I painstakingly transcribed into my Family Tree Maker program.

I then looked through the old picture albums that we had at my parent's house.  In these albums I found, memorial cards for my parents' aunts and uncles who had passed on photos.  Mostly they were of my father's side of the family but a couple of books had information about my mother's family.

This was the beginning information I used to create my family tree over 20 years ago.  I continued building my tree at that time the old fashioned way...writing letters, going to libraries, going to courthouses and paying for copies of vital certificates.  Then the internet began to explode with genealogical data and it has continued its rapid pace.  

Three years ago my mother passed away and I was amazed at the amount of information she had in her "office".  On the wall was hanging an ornate marriage certificate of my great grandparents.  SAY WHAT!!!  Why was I just finding out about this piece of family history?  But that was not the end of the vast family history treasures we would uncover.  

There were more pictures of her side of the family both her immediate family and ancestors.  I found pictures of people who had only been a name in my family tree.  It was great to put a face with name  even if it did take years to get to this point.

My mother during her last years of life and started gathering some of the pictures into family groups.  She created a book for each of her siblings containing pictures of them which she had accumulated over her life time.  Some of them from before her time were probably handed down from her mother.

This year my mother's side of the family is planning a family reunion.  My husband had spent the winter scanning  all of the pictures and other family history items I had brought home over the past few years.  Now I can bring up a digital image of these items any time I want.  It seems only appropriate to hand off the books that my mother created to someone in the family of the sibling.  

It is wonderful that technology has advanced to where we are saving most pictures digitally.  This makes pictures of our ancestors easier to share.  Knowing I can see these picture digitally at anytime allows me to share the original photos with the direct descendants of these siblings.