Heritage Lost: Simple ideas to preserve your family history with photographs

Memories are magical things. They can evoke warm feelings deep in the heart of even the most irritable soul. Long forgotten photos can transport your mind immediately back to the moment when the image was captured. Joy and sadness often stroll hand in hand when we walk down memory lane. Faces of dearly departed loved ones can evoke feelings not only of sadness over their loss, but intense joy at all the wonderful moments you shared together. Love, and life, live on forever in those treasured glimpses of the past.

It is vitally important that we become record keepers. We owe it to our future generations. Despite living in such an amazing age of technology and communication, valuable family information is being lost in staggering proportions. We naively assume that we’ll always remember the details. Precious memories are forgotten on a daily basis, never to be recovered. If we don’t take the opportunity to record these moments then we also lose valuable pieces of who we are and where we come from.

So, what are some simple steps you can take to ensure your family history will not be forgotten? Use your available resources. Grandparents are a wealth of knowledge, as are older aunts and uncles. Listen to their stories, make notes of names, dates and places. Write down what you know on the backs of pictures. This is essential in preserving your family history. Looking through old photographs together is an easy way to gather information, and spending quality time with your loved ones is an added benefit of record keeping.

Now what to do with all of the information you have gathered? This can be as simple or as complex as you choose. If you are a crafty person, you can make your own unique scrapbook album to preserve your photos. This may or may not become very elaborate and time-consuming depending on your personal tastes, but the finished projects can be absolutely stunning. There are hundreds of tutorials online that can help you get started if you feel this is the option for you.

If you are not a crafty person but still like the idea of a scrapbook, there are plenty of pre-made albums available for purchase at your local craft store. These are as simple as mounting the pictures on ready-made pages. You can then jot down any important names or dates if you like. Voilà, you’re done in minutes! It’s just that easy and now you have something wonderful you can pass down to future generations.

If you’re the more traditional type, then a simple photo album may be the right choice for you. No cutting, no gluing and no hassle. The photos slide right into their very own cozy little pocket with all the information written on the back. This really is the easiest way to preserve your memories if you don’t have a lot of free time. It requires no more investment than an acid free pen and an empty album.

Taming that box of old photographs hiding in the closet doesn’t have to be a daunting task. From simple albums to elaborate scrapbooks, the key thing to remember is that you are passing on your heritage to the younger family members. They will enjoy the chance to learn more about their roots and where they come from. Nurturing strong roots and familial pride start in the past and each generation builds on the foundation and traditions of their loved ones that have gone before them. So, no matter how you choose to do it, preserving history is important.