born a grandchild, now a grandmother - by keith kestner

Born a grandchild now a grandmother

Your life spans 5 generations

but you still have work to do.

YOU DAUGHTER GRAND DAUGHTER GRANDMOTHER MOTHER

If you do nothing… Your children will know about you

and

Your children will know something

about their grandparents

If you do nothing… Your grandkids will still know things

about you but the only thing they will know about your mother and your

grandmother are their names

But if you decide to put together a booklet of pictures

and stories These things will happen

Your kids will be happy to learn your complete life story as well as that of their

grandparents and

they will see that their four great grandmothers were real people

Your grandkids will thank you many times for your life story

made in pictures and text

and

that you have made their great grandparents people that they know

Lastly, your grandkids will get to

know about their great, great grandparents and their places

of origin in Europe

Okay, what is next? How do I get started?

Get out your old box of pictures that you have put off doing

anything with for so many years I know that you might not know all of the people in the pictures

Make a pile of pictures that include you, your spouse, your

kids, their spouses and their children

Start sorting the oldest pictures into grouping of your

four family groups

Your father’s family Your mother’s family Your husband’s father’s family Your husband’s mother’s family

Lastly, create a fifth pile for others

Then put each group in roughly chronological order

When you are done you will have six

groups of pictures each in

a column downward according to the age of the picture

Who are these people?

What about those pictures that you don’t know who they are?

(This is the hard part.)

If other family members can’t help and the local historical

society is not able to help you either

you might have throw them away

Unfortunately, even if your sentimentality makes you save

these images of unknown people

the succeeding generations will toss these pictures

Some of my grandmother’s pictures were saved because

my mother and I sat down and wrote names on some of

these pictures Unfortunately some have been

tossed away

Start writing the names, dates and locations on picture backs

Start with the groups first and then

do individuals last

As you start to put pictures in order remember that this is just temporary. Pictures will be moved around and some will be taken out as you plan and then attach your family

groups to blank paper sheets.

This is how one picture from each family group or subgroup

looks today My family today

Start with a picture of you and your spouse

Next put a picture of your children as they are now

PICTURE OF our FAMILY

Our family today Three children, their spouses and

grandchild Kate

My parents, brothers and me

My wife and her parents

Pictures of my father’s family

PICTURE OF FATHER’S FAMILY

Pictures of my mother’s family

Pictures of my wife’s father’s family

This is my wife’s mother family

Now get some blank typing paper and scotch tape.

Tape current pictures of your family: You, your spouse, your children and their families on pages based on chronology.

Remember to label each picture in your final copy.

Make sure that you include the names that you know and a question mark for those that you don’t know. Try to include the date and place of

each picture.

These pages can later be placed in a photo album or scrapbook that has pages that are a full page pocket.

Each family group page will be of an earlier time than the page after it.

Your first chapter is that of your current family.

This will include you, your spouse, your children and grandchildren.

Great grandchildren are also welcome.

Your second chapter Tape down pictures from your

dad’s family.

Your third chapter Tape down pictures of your

mother’s family

Your fourth and fifth chapters Tape down pictures of the two sides of your spouse’s family

each in separate chapters. Get your spouse involved.

Go to a self copy place like an Office Depot to get an idea of

how you are doing. Copy your chapters,

Review what you have done. This a real good start.

Make improvement before taking your pages to the color copier.

This completes the photo journaling part of the process.

If you choose to continue, supplemental materials are provided on the next slides.

As you look at your finished photo album, it will give you a feeling of

accomplishment. However, you will notice that you could do

more. The rest of the presentation will give you more information on how to add to your completed

photo album.

As you work try to reflect on the people that you knew well

family details

and

favorite stories

In a notebook or a computer Microsoft Word file start to write down

your thoughts about some of these people

Taking my photo album I started to write stories about groups and individuals within

these groups.

Look at some of the pages

This is what I did with my Real People booklet that you have seen

here today.

Putting some stories together with the photos might be all you want to

do for your family.

The next slides will show you some more things you could add to your

booklet of photos and stories.

At the end of the presentation is another idea of how you could write a personal story of your life using small

stories from your life time.

In the photo book I have added Maps of Local Interest

I also included some extra pictures of certain places

Maps of Countries of Origin

Pictures of Earlier Homes

Family Genealogy

Chart I - Your parents and grandparents Chart 2 – Your children and your

grandchildren

Chart 3- Your siblings

A family genealogy chart of the earlier generations

Start with your grandparents, parents and you

YOU

MOTHER FATHER

GRANDMOTHER GRANDFATHER

GRANDMOTHER GRANDFATHER

A genealogy chart of your current family

include your children and their

children

YOU SPOUSE

DAUGHTER SPOUSE SPOUSE SON SPOUSE SON

DAUGHTER SON DAUGHTER SON DAUGHTER SON

Make a chart of your siblings and their spouses and their children

also Add your spouse’s siblings, spouses

and their children

SPOUSE’S SISTER

HER SPOUSE

YOU SPOUSE HIS

SPOUSE YOUR

BROTHER

DAUGHTER SON DAUGHTER SON DAUGHTER SON

Good job! You have a great feeling of

accomplishment but you will want to keep adding the

original.

This is my final version or

“so I thought”

George Burns wrote a book called, “ One hundred stories

for one hundred years” He simply wrote stories from

his life. At this time I was sixty years old

so I thought I would write sixty stories

Jimmy Carter showed me a neat way of planning his writing. He took a word like baseball

which he made into his chapter heading. Then he thought of

stories from his life that had to do with baseball.

Some other chapters in his book 1. White House vacations

2. Sharing my faith 3. Watching birds together 4. Navy life 5. Fly fishing

I made lists of my life experiences that were funny,

serious, rewarding or just everyday stories

As I reflected and started writing more stories came to

mind When I was done there were

236 stories

I made lists of my life experiences that were funny,

serious, rewarding or just everyday stories

As I reflected and started writing more stories came to

mind When I was done there were

236 stories

An example of something funny

1. Egged at work 2. 2Finger stuck in helmet

3. 3.Where is my favorite player? 4. 4. Soaked in a hammock

An example of a serious event

1. My window was closed 2. 2. My three kids and weed killer

3. 3Three bad falls 4. 4. A woman needed help

An example of something that I am proud of

1 A softball team 2 Principal for a week

3. All three with their masters 4. Helping her mother

An example of a general interest story

1. Fergie , a cool guy 2. No hockey

3. The insult that sent me to college 4.Her finest moment

Now you are done!

You have something to be proud of as you give your children their own copy. Your relatives might also be interested in their own copy too.