Personal Family History Mission Accomplished (Almost!)

 

   Shirley Mason started her family history years ago before we had desktop computers. Several years prior to typing up her life history, she had made a family scrapbook (left) with notes, dates, and pictures which was a great reference when preparing her life history.  She says, "It's important to start young and add as you go, because when we get older, we take the chance of forgetting some important events in our lives." Shirley's final history was created on Microsoft Word (right) and saved as a .pdf file which can be read on any computer. She will have the pages printed at Staples and bound into  books for each of her children and grandchildren.
    Life histories can also be posted on FamilySearch via a .pdf file.

The biggest job Shirley had before she could start was sorting the pictures she had collected through the years. How she did this was designate a plastic bag for each category of pictures, then spend hours going through hundreds of pictures.  She digitized picture choices by photographing them on her Smart Phone, then transferring them to her computer.

   Decisions had to be made about which pictures were priceless, which were usable, or which ones were similar to others or didn't really matter for the history.

    Many church leaders have spoken to us about writing our personal and family history. As far back as 1980 in General Conference Elder John H. Groberg, a Seventy, counseled us:  "By writing personal and family histories, we are helped immeasurable in gaining a true, eternal perspective of life.  Writing our histories with the proper blend of fact and feeling (and so often, feelings in spiritual things are the real facts) gives us a keen spiritual insight into the meaning and purpose of our lives.  I wonder if, as in so many things, we don't deny ourselves this deeper spiritual insight by simply neglecting to write our histories."

  Shirley is an example to the ward and is willing to  help anyone starting on this journey.