Don’t lose your family stories and memories that have meaning for you and that can mean so much to future generations.
Your story is worth preserving.
I’ve posted about how friends I know have lost photos, videos, and other memories due to theft and historic tragedies like the recent fires in Altadena and Pacific Palisades.
Loss happens in other ways, too.
Don Simkovich helps me write my posts for my website and he shows us that loss can happen because we simply don’t know things about our closest family members.
Stories get lost with each passing generation, but I’m passionate that you need to keep the stories and memories of your loved ones and friends alive.
That’s why I use FOREVER® for my personal needs and the needs of my clients.
Don uses FOREVER®, too, and shares how we might not know as much about our closest loved ones as we thought we did.
How well do you know your loved ones?
A relative called recently and asked, “What city was my mother born in?”
The question shocked me.
I told him but I was surprised he asked. I figured that he and my sister, who was younger than me, were close and that he knew everything about her. She passed away in her early fifties several years ago.
But as I’ve been using FOREVER® to digitize and store photos I realize there’s so much I don’t know about my parents.
Where was my mother born? I thought I knew but I had doubts and stopped to look up the answer.
My kids definitely wouldn’t know the answer to that question. That never occurred to me until my nephew called. And that raised more questions.
What was my dad’s life like when he was growing up? I always thought I knew but now I’m not sure.
How much, or how little, do my kids know about me and my wife?
We can chronicle our lives for our own enjoyment, but we also need to do so for the benefit of our kids, our grandchildren, and their children.
You don’t want your family’s history to get lost or overlooked in just a generation or two.
For me, my kids were adopted out of the foster care system and they arrived at our home at different ages—from being toddlers to early teens. A couple of others came to us in their teens and we had guardianship responsibilities.
One of my sons asked me several months ago, “Why did you adopt us? Why did you do what you did?”
I had always taken for granted that they knew how our faith in God motivated me and my wife to open our home to kids who needed a family. I now realize I can explain using photos, videos, and written stories.
FOREVER® makes it possible to bring all the elements together to create an entertaining and informational family tree.
The many uses of FOREVER®
With FOREVER® you can:
- Digitize printed photo albums and other media files that are out of date
- Store the photos and more in digital albums you create
- Print the digitized files in photo books and gifts
- Research your family history with the help of professional genealogists
Here’s another important benefit: writing a lasting story.
Have you ever wanted to write stories about you and your family—and include photos or videos?
Here’s how FOREVER® makes that possible.
Each photo or video you upload is a file and has a margin where you can write a specific name, enter the date the photo or video was taken, and when you uploaded it.
There’s also space to create a description for the digital file that can either be brief or as long as a chapter in a book. You can either write it or “talk to text.”
If I want to chronicle the life of either my mother (or father), I can upload several photos and write descriptions that tell where she was born, a few facts about her growing up years and other key points like how she enjoyed my kids.
I can also write a few hundred words to a few thousand words about each file and create a mini-book or longer book that’s saved for future generations.
FOREVER®’s business model guarantees that the files stored are safe for a lifetime plus 100 years. The company’s goal is that the stored files will last well beyond that time frame.
When current file formats become obsolete, the FOREVER Guarantee Fund ensures they will be migrated to the newest file format at no added cost to you or future generations. This is how your family history stored in FOREVER Permanent Storage will live on long after we are no longer here.
Contact Melody and ask her any questions about how the guarantee works.
Ask yourself:
What do my kids not know about my parents (their grandparents) that I want them to know (and pass along to their children and other descendants)?
- Birthplace
- A character trait
- A funny story
- What my parents taught me—and how I taught that to my children.
What might my kids not know about me that I want them to know?
Like key moments in my childhood.
Example: okay, this is embarrassing but when I was five years old I got mad at my parents and threatened to run away.
To where?
We had visited New York City and stayed at a Hilton, so I naturally wanted to run away there. Mom asked me how’d I eat and I said I’d get room service. Simple.
I made it halfway down the driveway before I decided to turn around.
Sharing a story like this is vulnerable and it shows a universal timeless principle of kids getting mad at their parents. You can have a photo of yourself around the age that the incident happened.
Other stories and photos or videos to share could be:
- A challenge you faced and overcame
- Decisions made like relocating for a job
How about you?
Who are the people and what are the stories that you definitely want your children’s children and their descendants to be able to access?
Who are the family members or friends who should be included in your stories?
Your next steps
1 Declutter and digitize
Melody and I have written several posts about how to declutter your older memories so you can digitize them to safeguard them.
If you need to declutter, make a dedicated space to have all of your files so you can sort through the ones you want to keep and ones you decide to toss.
Links to decluttering posts are at the end.
2 Use a notebook and pen
You’re going to get ideas so use a notebook and pen to jot them down.
You can use your phone or laptop, of course, but the physical process of writing notes by hand can help you think of other stories.
3 Digitize, store, and write
Digitize your old files using a box from FOREVER®. Consult with Melody on selecting the best size.
After they’re digitized, store files in your FOREVER® permanent storage account and enjoy writing in the margins.
Consult your notes and start with brief descriptions. And add more notes if you’d like.
There’s no need to edit and feel that you need to write perfectly. Get the ideas down and refine as you have time.
Get ideas for safeguarding your family’s memories
If you need ideas for safeguarding your family’s most important memories like Don has had, then click on the top of my website and complete the photo questionnaire.
In just a few minutes, you’ll start thinking about your photo needs.
Contact me and check my Events page to stay up to date on helpful topics.
The end result is:
1 having peace of mind that you’ve protected your stories from small or large disasters
2 passing along some of your best stories to descendants many generations into the future.
Your family’s story is an important part of history. Keep it so your future family members can learn from you and feel connected to your family and your colorful history.