Family History - What's the big deal?

One of the things I have immersed myself in this spring in some good old fashioned genealogy.  When I was a little girl, I was fascinated by the stories and pictures my grandma would tell about her childhood and my ancestors.  She would break out pictures and point out who they were and my relation to them.  As she got older, she began to repeat herself, which is okay I didn't mind hearing the stories again.  I only wish I had had the foresight to write down what she was saying.

I have been using a website called Family Search.  So far I haven't encountered any expenses.  You can input your known relatives and begin searching for more.  I find it addictive.  It's like I crave a connection to the past, that these people are crying out from the dust and want to be remembered.  I want to be remembered and matter, and that is why I think it is a big deal...Because, I bet these relatives wanted to be remembered and matter to someone, too.

A few years ago I was involved in the Nations largest service project...the indexing of the 1940's census.  Indexing is transcribing old documents and digitizing them.  Documents like birth and death certificates, marriage certificates and enlistment forms are made available right at the tips of your fingers.  It's pretty cool, really.  Yesterday I indexed a bunch of birth certificates from 1923 in Chicago, Illinois.  My husband is from Chicago, and I thought it would be cool if I saw one of his family's birth certificate...but I didn't.  My daughter is interested in this family history work, and has listened to me and dabbled in it herself.   She even put in ten hours of indexing for a service project.

There are many different forms that family history takes:  

blogging, scrapbooking, journaling, genealogy, indexing.  

What do you do to connect to your past?

Accomplishments

I figure I had better report on my Weekend Unplugged.  It was not as easy as I had hoped it would be.  I did find myself checking e-mail on my phone.  Shame on me!  However, I deleted the Facebook app.  No need to see what people are doing online when I should be DOING in real life.  You know?

For the most part I was able to get some things accomplished that I might not have had the time for if I had not unplugged.  We went to the gym on Saturday morning, went with Ladybug to a school play (Into the Woods), attended Church and began scrap booking my wedding (which was in 1989!)  into a Project Life Album.  I bought the Olive Edition recently when it was on sale.  I had those horrid sticky albums that come to find out years later are not acid free.  The pictures were hard to peel up...another 20 years and they would have been cemented in there.

I feel quite accomplished and liberated, if I do say so myself.  It is amazing how much can get done when I decide to focus outside the internet world.  I also watched Pretty in Pink while working on my Album because it celebrated it's 27th anniversary this past week.  Twenty-Seven years!!!  Dang, I'm old...

Source

A Giveaway! Woot!

I'm so excited to share with you a giveaway.  I thought this would be fun because who doesn't like free stuff, ya know?  I was recently contacted by My Memories about hosting this here shindig.  Ironically, I won a similar giveaway recently on Every Day Mom Ideas.  It's my turn to give back.  So My Memories Digital Scrapbooking Software is pretty easy to use.  The thing I like best is the fact that they have so many tutorials on their website.  If you are scrapbook software inept like me, then this is the one for you.  They are so helpful!

Here is an introduction Tutorial to their software found on youtube.  It is 30 minutes long...

Without further ado....this is how you enter.

1. One mandatory entry for visiting My Memories Suite and telling me which paper packet is your favorite.
2. One additional entry for being a That's What She Said...follower

3. One additional entry for putting my button on your blog

4. One additional entry for becoming a follower of the My Memories Suite Blog

5. One additional entry for becoming a My Memories Suite follower on Facebook.

6. One additional entry for blogging about this giveaway and linking back to me.   

Just post a comment on my blog post for each entry you are participating in, and I will verify your entry.  Deadline for entry is Friday, November 11th at midnight.  Winner will be selected randomly on Saturday morning and you will be notified by e-mail.  Please make sure to leave me your e-mail address if you don't have it hooked up with your blogger.  Obviously, non reply comment bloggers will be ineligible if I don't have an e-mail address to contact you.

Good Luck!