Family Stories

Especially since writing 52 Tuesdays, I’ve encouraged people to preserve their history, to save the family stories for future generations.  Several people have told me that they decided to make a journal quilt similar to mine; others have said they were motivated to start keeping a written record of their days.  Both ideas thrill me – to know that my words inspired someone to record and share their stories.

But I’ve realized that I haven’t done enough to preserve my own stories, especially those of my childhood.  Late in 2019, I began doing just that.  The writing project that ensued might be the reason you saw fewer blog posts. The level of sharing is different when it’s being written for future generations and for strangers on the internet – I found it hard to switch gears.

But write personal stories and memories I did.  My daughter DJ had asked that I record family memories in my own handwriting.  I did some of that, but my arthritic hands and wrists rebelled.  And I’ve become accustomed to writing on a computer where editing is easier and later searchable; making it easier to answer the question, “Have I told this already?”

So the book I created included both handwritten and typed stories.  I used a notebook system where I could rearrange pages as thoughts did not come in a chronological order.  Too, I could add my own papers with photos or drawings, and use pages of different sizes.

The photos you see are a few of the interior pages where you get the idea.  I had quite a large extended family of aunts and uncles and cousins.  I printed a page with photos for each group and a chart that included family names.  That helps whatever subsequent generation is reading it to get relationships more clearly, I think.  Between those full sheets (8 1/2” x 11”) showing the family breakdown, I inserted smaller pages with stories.  

I continue to think of stories to share.  Now it’s a simple matter of writing them and inserting them in the book.  This is the gift that keeps on giving.  I see a need to add more photos, drawings, maps.

There are pages where Jim wrote stories about his childhood, too

It’s a given that any memory of mine is associated with fabric.  So the cover of the book is a collage of textile memories:  a lace dress my mother wore, a couple of dresses she made for me, a bit of silk from a dress she received as a child.  There’s part of a nail apron from my Daddy’s favorite hardware store, a pocket from a pair of his overalls, a bit of my Grandmother’s apron.   Remnants of clothing worn by my sister, me, Jim, and DJ herself are there, too.

I gave this album to DJ at Christmas.  It was well received and I’m relieved!  I’m relieved that this project is no longer a secret.  She has been doing some family research on Ancestry and has a lot of questions – some of which were hard to answer without revealing that I was on a quest, too.  Now the charts from Ancestry and the photos and stories from my parents’ albums can work together to solve some mysteries.