For those who aren’t aware, October is Family History Month here in the United States. Officially designated by the U. S. Senate in 2001, Family History Month has helped genealogy become the second-most popular hobby in America. However, while learning about your ancestors creates a valuable sense of heritage, there’s more to family history than the names and dates you find listed on sites like Ancestry.com.
Your Family Tree
Your family tree may show you your lineage, but it lacks the flair and savor of the lives your ancestors lived. Imagine the stories, writings, letters, photos and other memorabilia as the leaves of your family tree, the things that make your family history truly come alive. Knowing one without the other is only part of the picture, and they work hand-in-hand — or leaf-and-branch — to show you as much as possible about the reality of how you came to be where you are in your life.
Resources
Without the aid of websites like Ancestry and FamilySearch, it can be far more difficult to find these aspects of your family history, but the richness they bring to the picture makes the effort that much more rewarding. A new website is beginning to catch on designed to help people discover their family heirlooms, JustAJoy.com, which is designed to help members sort through collections of heirlooms that have gotten lost or found by other families and reconnect them with their rightful descendants. It’s not foolproof, of course, so be sure to take the time to preserve your own family heirlooms and ephemera for future generations to appreciate.
Celebrating Your Family Story
Family History Month is dedicated to celebrating who we are and the people who brought us to where we are today. It was meant to inspire people across the nation to ask questions about their own family story and to explore the lives of those who came before them. While family history month may come just once a year, it’s a continuing progression – and we, ourselves, are creating new family history all the time.
How will you celebrate Family History Month?
~ Legacy Videos ~
Give your family the gift of a lifetime by capturing your parent or grandparent’s life story and memories in a Legacy Video.
Here at Family Tree Video we produce Legacy Videos, modern-day memoirs that weave a filmed interview together with family photos, documents, maps and other memorabilia. The result is a beautiful “Moving Portrait” capturing your loved one as they recount their life story and memories – a gift your family will treasure for generations to come.
To learn more about capturing your parent or grandparent’s stories in a Legacy Video, visit us at FamilyTreeVideo.com.
Family Tree Video, LLC
Legacy Video Production
Since 2007
Susan Saunders
(312) 402-6406
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