Starting with the “Whys”
I think of it as the “need” to pass on the records of my family so that future generations will remember and will get to know those who came before. I must admit, I wish to be remembered as the knight who carries the holy grail of family memories into at least a few generations to come.
Yes, there are the reasons I stated above. However, without turning my fascination with family records into a fun thing” I do not know if I could have persevered. I have incorporated “family historian” into many of my hobbies, the things I have been doing for family-historian-fun all these years:
Collecting, Scanning, Importing
• family drawings, paintings, writings and highlights of school work
• family letters, postal cards and greeting cards
• pre-digital family photos from albums; digital photos imported into computer files
• family documents, such as certificates, licenses, transcripts, report cards, resumes, awards, announcements, diplomas, credentials, invitations and articles
• family videos from 1975 and old family movies from 1938
• kids’ tape recordings (pre-video)
• tax forms, calendars, medical records, monthly budgets, legal papers
• my old poems from the 1960s
Current Writing
• my autobiography — in chapters based on where I lived
• essays like this one — my 79th — to be added to my autobiography
• photo-story books for my grandchildren, incorporating their images and ideas
• a family genealogy based on records from Ancestry.com, the LDS (Mormon) archives, etc.
Producing
• homemade family books and DVDs so all this information can be presented, stored and passed on — at least for a little while.
Mr. Ebsen may be contacted at robertebsen@hotmailcom
