Father left this world

2manyrocks · Aug 25, 2022

The two local families that run competing funeral homes in our rural mid TN community each maintain on line obits. All their data stored on line is at risk of going away. They could get tired of the expense. They could sell out to a chain. I doubt that these obits will be accessible 100 years from now.

I looked at a property to buy a few months ago. The owner died intestate (no will). His three out of state children filed an affidavit of heirship in the real estate records claiming ownership of his house, but his children weren't even mentioned in his obituary.

If something is important to your family history, please document it yourself in a way that doesn't depend on third parties. How you choose to do this depends on what you are comfortable working with.

Even the basic version of Microsoft word I have makes easy to integrate pictures with text that can be printed on a quality color or b/w laser printer for longevity. It isn't that expensive except for taking the time to do it. Pictures stir our memories and show things that would be difficult to describe in words. They give future generations a view of what happened back then. The text explains the significance of the picture.

It doesn't have to be written like a presidential biography. Write what you know like the awesome story about your Dad's ring passing to your son.

My father didn't type. One of the most valuable (to me) pieces of my family history is my father's handwritten memories of his grandparents. They passed before I was born. His description tells what they were like and their importance to him. I am so very grateful that he took time to write his memories down because the memories help me know them as living people rather than just names, faces, places and dates.

Sigarms · Aug 25, 2022

Another thing to think about... Prayer cards...

Exactly how many pictures of Jesus do you need with scripture laminated to be used as a book mark? Hope I'm not going to haydes for that thought...

Funerals, like everything else, are changing over time, particularly when people get "spread out".

buckeyefarmer · Aug 25, 2022

2manyrocks said:
Family histories are imperfect. Document what you know because the next generation won't know anything except what you write down for them. Given enough time, people forget what they've been told. If it's important or interesting, write it down.

My aunt kept one short newspaper clipping about the death of a cousin in WWII that led to me researching more about his life. If it were not for that one newspaper clipping, I wouldn't have had any place to start.

Many family photographs containing significant historical information and clues get thrown out because later generations have no clue about who is in the photograph or their significance to family history. For example, you may easily know who is in a photo from 1960, when the photo was made, where it was made... and it's significance but future generations may not have the first clue unless you fill in the blanks for them.

If they don't understand the importance of something, they tend to throw it away.

I have photos going back to the early 1900s. There came a point when I realized that I may be one of the few people who can still identify the people in these photographs. That led to me organizing the photos, identifying the people and then writing about what I knew so their stories just didn't disappear.

You have an obvious talent for communication and attention to detail. Make a list of information and stories you want to share with future generations. Fill in the blanks for them as best you can.

Some good points.
I have become the family historian. I have old pictures, some from late 1800s that was my great grandmothers. I’m trying to determine who people are in them. I have scanned all the old pictures.
I need to write it down. I have notes in spreadsheets.
I’ve been wanting to make a book.

MossRoad · Aug 25, 2022

Sigarms said:
Another thing to think about... Prayer cards...

Exactly how many pictures of Jesus do you need with scripture laminated to be used as a book mark? Hope I'm not going to haydes for that thought...

Funerals, like everything else, are changing over time, particularly when people get "spread out".

I collect them all!

I had a stack of them in my Suburban, I've been to so many funerals.
Just found about 30 more going through some of my dad's stuff that's been in storage since '95. It's kinda nice and traditional, so we always take one, and, we always have them printed as keepsakes when we're the ones responsible for the deceased person. Just something to remember those that have gone before us.

As for going to hades, from your writings here on TBN, I'm pretty sure you'll probably skip that and just go to purgatory for a short while, get the bottoms of your feet toasted a bit, then move on to heaven, should you chose to be in that line of thinking.

(please put a good word in there for me, just in case I'm wrong)

MossRoad · Aug 25, 2022

buckeyefarmer said:
Some good points.
I have become the family historian. I have old pictures, some from late 1800s that was my great grandmothers. I’m trying to determine who people are in them. I have scanned all the old pictures.
I need to write it down. I have notes in spreadsheets.
I’ve been wanting to make a book.

My father had a bunch of pictures of family and such. I got them when he passed away. While in his later years he took the time to write on the back who's who and where, he sometimes got a few things incorrect.

Favorite example is of my grandfather holding a rather large catfish that he caught. The back of the photo says grandpa with a catfish at Diamond Lake in Michigan..... there's palm tress in the back of the photo!

Grandma and Grandpa had a winter home in Florida.

2manyrocks · Aug 25, 2022

Ordinary light pencil on the back of a photo printed on paper should not bleed through. Too much writing pressure will damage the paper and surface of the photo.

I wouldn't use ink. Have seen it bleed onto other photos.

There is a need to make things simple for later generations. If they can see who the persons are from the back of the photo without having to look other information that might get separated from the photos over time, that's very helpful.

There really isn't much room on the back of most photos to tell a story. Often, there are a series of photos over time that capture the most important parts of family history.

Most photo book printers of whom I am aware seem focused on photo printing and force you into their printing templates. I just wanted a simple way of tying our photos together with what I knew about our family history. So that's why I used MS Word along with a laser printer at home.

One method of dealing with information management pertaining to a very large number of photographs that have been scanned is to use a program like Photo Mechanic Plus. It is specifically made for captioning photos with IPTC data. It is typically used by sports photographers sending their photos out for news media publication. The news media can look at the embedded IPTC data and immediately know who's in the photo, what they were doing, when it was taken, who made the photo, etc.

Once names, dates, places are entered into the IPTC data for each photo, the program is very quick at sorting them. When you are trying to figure out who people are in photos, it's helpful to be able to compare photos over time to try to figure out the missing names. This kind of photo sorting is much faster than trying to sort through many, many paper photos. And it avoids potential damage by repeated handling of old photos.

I'm not advocating using digital media for long term storage of family photos, but I will say this program is excellent as a photo management tool. New: Photo Mechanic Plus - Camera Bits, Inc..

Sigarms · Aug 25, 2022

MossRoad said:
I collect them all!

I use to collect baseball cards to!

As for Heaven and Hades, I'm a pessimist at heart. If I plan it that way and it happens, Its expected on my end. If it works out better than expected, I'm ahead of the game LOL Never been to a funeral yet where the minister has said the departed is going to Hades.

Way I see it, if I want to collect scriptures, I'll get a Bible. Wait, I have one!

Sigarms · Aug 25, 2022

2manyrocks said:
Ordinary light pencil on the back of a photo printed on paper should not bleed through. Too much writing pressure will damage the paper and surface of the photo.

I wouldn't use ink. Have seen it bleed onto other photos.

There is a need to make things simple for later generations. If they can see who the persons are from the back of the photo without having to look other information that might get separated from the photos over time, that's very helpful.

There really isn't much room on the back of most photos to tell a story. Often, there are a series of photos over time that capture the most important parts of family history.

Most photo book printers of whom I am aware seem focused on photo printing and force you into their printing templates. I just wanted a simple way of tying our photos together with what I knew about our family history. So that's why I used MS Word along with a laser printer at home.

One method of dealing with information management pertaining to a very large number of photographs that have been scanned is to use a program like Photo Mechanic Plus. It is specifically made for captioning photos with IPTC data. It is typically used by sports photographers sending their photos out for news media publication. The news media can look at the embedded IPTC data and immediately know who's in the photo, what they were doing, when it was taken, who made the photo, etc.

Once names, dates, places are entered into the IPTC data for each photo, the program is very quick at sorting them. When you are trying to figure out who people are in photos, it's helpful to be able to compare photos over time to try to figure out the missing names. This kind of photo sorting is much faster than trying to sort through many, many paper photos. And it avoids potential damage by repeated handling of old photos.

I'm not advocating using digital media for long term storage of family photos, but I will say this program is excellent as a photo management tool. New: Photo Mechanic Plus - Camera Bits, Inc..

You are definitely ahead of the game.