Where did the time go . . .

April has been a busy month for this blogger. I had every intention to post thoughts, ideas & stories about my Family Museum, but was distracted by many things.  One of which was looking for some photographs of a family friend whose mother and my dearest friend passed away several years ago. He told us that after his mom passed away, he realized he had only a few pictures from his childhood and of his mom. So we told him I had a box full of pictures and will be thrilled to give them to him.

Well . . .  I can’t find them! I searched everywhere, cleaning out closets, going through boxes & files along the way, but didn't that box. This search also made me go through our Memory Boxes. I thought maybe his pictures got mixed in our boxes. After going through all of them and even making new ones, I still didn’t find his pictures. But I haven’t given up. That box is probably right under my nose, but for the life of me, I can’t find it. But I will!

Also during April, I had received by mail (I hadn’t received a formal letter address to me in the mail for years). It was from a local community’s Genealogical Club and they want me to address their members about how they can create their own Family Museum. The gentlemen who wrote the letter saw my book at the local library and invited me to give a lecture. How thrilling. I had not yet given any talks on my book so this is a challenge I am ready to take. But now I have to put together a Power Point Presentation. Wish me luck. I have never put one together before so I am learning as I go. Thankfully, our library offer classes on how to do this, so you bet I will be there. After I have accomplished this fete, I might offer this how-to class online for everyone who wants to create their Family Museum. So stay tune . . .

Then yesterday was my daughter’s birthday
and we celebrated all day long, going out on an excursion to historic Smithfield, home of Virginia peanuts & bacon. We took the ferryboat across the James River.
It's a lovely town filled with Victorian homes, antiques stores & restaurants. We browsed through the stores where I
saw this unique way of displaying antiques.
We had a delicious lunch, then drove around the town, got back on the ferry to home.

We grilled some great German Sausage and served it with Sauerkraut. Yum! She opened her gifts and we
just enjoy the fine weather and dining out on our
veranda, talking and making plans for our next excursion.

So here it is, almost the last day in April and I felt it was a good time for me to write and post a blog and to let you all know that I will do better next month. I have so many stories and pictures to share about why it is so very important to have a Family Museum. Until next month . . .     

Collecting vs. Saving: Archiving Family Keepsakes

Here’s that word again . . . Organization. But instead of focusing on the physical aspect of organizing, let’s turn our efforts to quantifying, i.e.: purpose, vision, itemizing, detailing, cataloging, and then creating.
 
Objectives: the reasons you want to archive your family keepsakes. What is your motivation? Is there validation in your intention? The catalyst can be a simple incentive, such as saving that antique meat grinder of her grandmother’s. Or your father’s cigar box. Sit down and have a talk with yourself and then share your thoughts with your family. Saving should be fun and not burdensome. Give it, yourself and your family time.

The Plan: Architects and designers start out with a vision. What’s yours? Here is a chance to get back to basics by actually taking pencil, paper and a ruler in hand and draw out how you envision your archival space. Sketch an image. When my family decided to create our Family Museum, I sat down and drew a picture, measuring the available space along the way. Ask the family for their ideas, how they see it. Make this a family affair.

Documenting: Start by taking a photograph of each heirloom. Record which relative owned the object and tell the object’s story. What is it? Who owned it? And why is it important to the family? Place photographs in boxes, a box for each person. Once the boxes are filled and others are needed, do so. Once the photographs are in their proper box, organize each box, starting with dates, and if no dates are found, give a good guesstimate. There are many photo-journaling sites that have a variety of online tutorials and products that offer guidance on how to document photographs. Visit this site and you might recognize a familiar link.  https://www.mycanvas.com/ 

NOTE: A post from 04/2014, I wrote about making Memory Boxes for each family member. During our lifetimes, we accumulate many little things that mean a lot and instead of stashing them in a non-descript box, make a Memory Box. Fill it with all those odd-ball things and as the post said, give it as a present. You will be surprised at how thrilled the owner of those things are and glad that you took the time and thought to save it for them. Hopefully, they will take it from there.   http://howtocreateafamilymuseum.blogspot.com/2014/04/thanks-for-memories.html

This is also the best time to create an inventory. Look at it this way – you are organizing the future. History as taught us that if it were not for the physical inventories taken by households from the past, diligently logged into and recorded in both small and large books for posterity, how would our descendants know what we had. They wouldn’t.
Also, this is a good time to make vocal recordings. Voice is magic. Document it! http://www.familytreemagazine.com/article/getting-the-word

Separating: Here comes the piles! Stacks and heaps of paper, however, don’t make a mountain out of a mole hill. All of these physical records can be organized, a little at a time. The importance of the papers should be considered first. What kind are they? Property Deeds, Wills, Certificates. Get file folders, title each one and put the corresponding documents in that folder.
Once this is finished, digitize the paper documents. Check this site for help. http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/ 

Objective/þ, Your Plan/þ, Documenting/þ, Inventory/þ, Recordings/þ, Separating/Digitizing/þ. Now you are ready to create your Family Museum. Check out this post: http://howtocreateafamilymuseum.blogspot.com/2014/08/how-to-build-family-museum-building.html on building materials. Then read this post on where there is space: http://howtocreateafamilymuseum.blogspot.com/2014/03/where-there-is-space-in-your-home.html 

As you peruse these and other posts, many of your questions will be answered. The purpose, the rationale, the function and the intent should be foremost in your mind: your Family Museum is where to . . .
"Keep all special thoughts and memories for lifetimes to come. Share these keepsakes with others to inspire hope and build from the past, which can bridge to the future."  Quote by: Mattie Stepanek 

Millennium learns how to conserve and preserve his history . . .

My 28 year-old son, Charlie, decided to finally clean out his closet. What an undertaking he found it to be. File folders of newspaper clippings, bags of bags from places he shopped, paper tubes filled with drawings, and boxes filled with his insatiable desire to collect maritime history artifacts. He was overwhelmed with his collections and perplexed as to how he was going to sort through it all, what to keep, what to throw away and then how and where to keep his stuff. After a few hours, he came to me with eyes like a deer caught in the headlights, stunned and at a loss at what to do next. However, he does have some knowledge on how to keep what is most important to him because he has his own museum, albeit the fact that it was created for him by me, the family museum curator. But what he has in his possession that is not in the museum is what he needs to be concerned about. So here are a few of the suggestions and steps I encouraged him to follow:

1.  Tackle one project at a time, such as going through the file folders of newspaper clippings. Review each one, measure its relevance. Separate piles in subject-like matter. Take each clipping and trim away irrelevant print, but make sure to keep the date and publication info. Repair any rips with preservation double coated tape available at www.amazon.com. Either re-file kept clippings chronologically or place a few notable ones in a scrapbook designed for keeping newspaper. For a wide selection of albums go to Google and typed in scrapbooks for newspaper clippings. A plethora of websites will give you all the help you need to find what you are looking for.

2.  Paper tubes are wonderful for storing large drawings, poster art, etc. Charlie is an artist. From the time he started to draw, his doodles, drawings and later, his diagrams were of ships. His father and I thought he would pursue a career in technical drawing, but alas, he did not, but to this day, he still draws pictures of ships. As he grew, so did the size of his drawings. The largest is a pencil and ink illustration of his most revered ship, the TITANIC. Charlie made multiple copies of this drawing. He even gave one to his high school teacher on his graduation day, and while he was a docent at our local maritime museum, he presented it to the director of the museum.

Solution to storing large drawings are to store them in paper tubes. Charlie has several of them and one already contained drawings. But he had many others and overwhelmed at how they were all going to fit.  So we laid out each and every drawing, unfurling them and making sure frayed edges were smoothed out and rips repaired. Then the drawings were lined up and firmly rolled back into place and slipped into the tube, date and contents noted.
 While doing this and before the copies were rolled up, I had Charlie take note of the TITANIC drawing hanging on his wall. I asked him if he saw any difference in the two drawings. At first he said no, but I told him to take a closer look at the writings in the picture. Getting close to it, he exclaimed, “Oh my, the writing is fading!” Yes, it sure was. So I explained how all artwork, be it a painting, photograph, reproduction work, etc., all fade with age and by light. Why do you think art museums take due-diligence protecting their artworks. So now, with him taking care to preserve and protect his drawings, when the day comes and his TITANIC drawing has faded and no longer enjoyable to look at, he can slip the preserved one from out of the tube and replace the faded one, and once again enjoy his master piece. When looking for paper tubes, check out www.uline.com

4. Storing items that are not flat, such as booklets, brochures, maps, and in Charlie's case, maritime memorabilia, such as past ocean liner menus, programs, even tiny ashtrays, need to be preserved in a box that is used exclusively for that purpose. Called "Memory Boxes" they are available at www.punchstudio.com, Michael's Arts & Craft Stores, and Amazon.com. When you use these boxes, to help with organizing the items inside, keep to a theme, i.e.: travel, souvenirs, cards & letters, etc. Make sure fragile items are wrapped in tissue paper, photographs in slip covers, and then fashion a list of contents with dates, places, etc. And don't over-stuff the box. It won't close properly and the idea of preservation is mute.

5. As for Charlie's bag of bags, it's entertaining. If he ever needs an odd gift bag or amusing tissue paper, he's got it. This reminds me of a few words my father said to me time  and again: "Lisbit, never throw anything away. You may need it later."

Conservation, preservation, keeping, storing, organizing - all of these activities are well-worth the time and energy you put into it. And my Millennium is learning many life-long lessons as he sorts, selects, keeps & disposes of newspaper clippings, artwork, collections and then some. And he is actually enjoying this endeavor. He gets to visit times, places, and things buried in his closet and in his memory, but now has been unearthed and enjoyed again. You should do the same!