Amazing What Families Keep

Stephanie Siegel says in her article in Atlanta's neighbourhood newspaper ..."Douglas County Commissioner Mike Mulcare considers himself fortunate that his mother, Elanora Kaiser Mulcare, taped notes explaining the other pretty things she passed down."

Another heirloom, Mulcare found when his mother died in 2001. “I found two pieces of cloth folded up neatly with the note ‘these were done by Johnnie’ — John William Mulcare, my father.

These type of objects often turn up in oxes of items stored by family members, it's lucky Mike's Mom thought to place labels with them because often nobody does and then their significance to the family is often lost or hidden.

A case in point is a photo of a "famous" racehorse once held in my family "Mountain Knight, a story largely lost except for the family story reseach uncovering the story I have been able to undertake myself.

Encourage your loved ones to write small notes and include them with objects or write on the back of phtos, in sift pencil preferably, to preserve th story and pass it on before it is too late.

 

 

History Pin Sharing Historic Photos and Comparing to Now

via historypin.com

HistoryPin This is an interesting site in beta version. It is an interactive map which "pins" old photos uploaded by users on a Google map so that you can see where the photo was taken. Where Google street view is available you can compare the location in the context of that place today.

This would be a great way to share your life story and personal memoirs by uploading a photo and adding a short story about it.

Seems a fun thing to do and will grow to a great resource.

Hand Bookbinding for Treasured Family History Books

I recently came across a great guy, Alan Carpenter, who is a hand book binder.  Alan has had over 40 years of bookbinding experience and was a Gold Medal Bookbinder in 1970.

Alan's company, Valley Bookbinding, is based on the Central Coast of NSW and I have decided to use Alan's service for hand binding Lifetime Memories and Stories Life Story Books.

I have seen examples of Alan's work where he has rebound family bibles and evn preserved what he could of the original binding and it is totally awesome what a professional book binder can do.

If you are in Sydney, Newcastle or the Central Coast of NSW and need some quality hand binding done then give Alan a call on : 0408 290 888

Earthquake in Christchurch Tears Down New Zealand's History

via theaustralian.com.au

"THIS is the greatest disaster New Zealand has ever seen," Agriculture Minister David Carter told The Australian yesterday. Many historical buildings have been destroyed including the historic country homestead of the Deans family, relatives of Wallabies rugby coach Robbie Deans.

For two terrifying minutes at 4.35am (NZ time) on Saturday, New Zealand's second-largest city was tossed around like a rag doll by the most fearsome earthquake to hit the country since 1931.

Friends of mine live in the city and I was very pleased to contact them to find out that they had largely been unaffected. Mother nature is so powerful and we never know when it is going to surprise us.

One of the things we can do though is to document our family history and photograph and protect the key items that connect us. Obviously you can not wrap a huge house up in cotton wool and put it in "safe storage" but perhaps we can make sure that we photograph and then protect those photographs by storing copies in different places.

There are many different on-line options for storing valuable documents and photos for the future these days and perhaps you should look at them for your own family history?

Respect Your Father's Stories

<div class="mosimage" style=" border-width: 1px; float: left; width: 300px;" align="center"><img src=" " width="300" height="450" hspace="6" alt="Preserve your father's life story" title="Image" border="0" /><div class="mosimage_caption" style="text-align: right;" align="right">Port Broughton’s Bruno Carbone spent 33 years in the Australian Army, serving in Vietnam, Malaya and Borneo. </div> It's great to see a man's story, a father's story told.  Too often the stories of the ordinary bloke are not mentioned very much. 

Here, in a short article by the Yorke Peninsular Country Times is a short interview with Bruno Carbone, a first generation Australian, about his time serving in the armed forces of Australia. Bruno is one of a rare breed of men who is now happy to talk about his life and service for his country after having been discharged from the Army suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.

Bruno spent 33 years in the Australian Army including seeing action serving in Malaysia, or Malaya as it was then called, and Vietnam.

Men in general and particularly those of Bruno's generation, have often had an upbringing which taught them to internalise any traumas and keep there stories to themselves.  When you are approaching your father to ask him for his life story you need to make that approach gently and with respect.  That advice goes for any interview about a person and their life story, however, with men you need to be especially aware to their sensitivities and that initial rebuff may be as a result of how they have been brought up to regard themselves and their life story as something that is very personal and private.

At Lifetime Memories and Stories we often are asked to interview men who have served time in the armed forces.  We have prepared a "Free eGuide to "How to Interview Your Father" which we hope will offer you some very useful practical advice in approaching and interviewing your father or indeed the other significant men folk in your life.  Don't be put off by an initial rebuff when you ask if you can record their life story, the key to making it an enjoyable experience for both parties is to prepare yourself fully in advance and make a gentle and respectful approach with a persuasive conversation tailored to your subject.  Give them time to think about it and don't push into areas where there is a strong resistance.

The resources we have put together for you will assist you in preserving your father's story and enhance your shared time together.

Keeping Family memories Alive

It's a worldwide thing, interest in family history, and I came across an exhibition in Nigeria if you happen to be there. Elo Photos will be holding a Family Portraiture exhibition at the Palms Shopping Mall in Lekki, Lagos, come October, as part of the country’s 50th anniversary jubilee. 

The exhibitor said:

“I realise there was a gap to be filled in family portraiture as a lot of families don’t document their family memories,” Oluwaseun Akisanmi, the photo artist, told reporters at a recent press briefing on August 27.

“Sometimes, parents get too busy that they allow important times to pass without having a photo documentation to keep these memories alive,” he said, highlighting one reason for the neglect of family portraiture."

Not only is it important to take the photos but it is equally important to preserve them.  Did you know that only abpout 20% of digital photos are printed out, and some of those on paper and with inks that will fade in less than 10 years.

You should take steps to stop the digital rot of images.  You may be interested in a useful post  preserve your family stories and photos on Lifetime Memories and Stories main site.

Log of Logs for Australia and New Zealand

I came across an interesting post from Lyn on the New Zealand Genealogy Website

Apparently there was a lot of work done by an Australian, Ian Nicholson in preparing this list of immigrant arrivals and ships logs and associated information which is all available at the Auckland City Library in New Zealand.

This information will be of use to new Zealand researchers and in preparing to record your family story for the future.

The New Zealand Genealogy Website is a great resource and well worth checking out if you are working on a New Zealand family history.