Our Family Our Story

How wonderful to be able to spend time with my father’s brother Uncle Geoff. My father was one of 4 brothers born and brought up near Flint in Wales. As my father emigrated to New Zealand in 1951, I knew of my uncles but I had never met any of them. Uncle Geoff is the only one left now and at first he was a little apprehensive about coming to Milton Keynes from Flint for the weekend. He and his wife Edna were married for 54 years and since she died 4 years ago, he’s been lonely and not wanted to go out much. We got him a train ticket and on he came down. Great for 86!

This is our family for lunch:

It was a wonderful day. My brother’s only daughter and her partner came for dinner so Uncle Geoff got to know all his relatives from New Zealand. There was so much love and laughter.

Uncle Geoff told us tales of their youth and stories about my father. He also bought some photos with him that I had not seem before of my Welsh grandparents. He gave me a photo of my dad before he lost his leg in WWII. I had never seem my dad with 2 whole legs before so that photo is quite special. Now I need to get these photos and new stories into my family history album before I forget. My plan for next weekend!

Of course I couldn’t wait to scrapbook the family gathering and made this double page spread on the Sunday after Uncle Geoff had left.

Technorati Tags: Family History, family photos, memories, write your story

The hardest part is just starting….

Think about this….. Most of us do not have any trouble talking. We meet someone and we start talking. If its a family member or a friend out it all comes, usually without any thought as to how we compose the sentences, what word we start a sentence with, how long before we stop, pause, like a paragraph. It’s just natural to us to talk.

So why don’t we start writing that way?

It can help to imagine you are talking to a relative or friend. Talk in your mind or talk out loud and write down what you say. If you can’t get it down quick enough record your conversation and transcribe it later, or get someone else to do it for you. Afterwards you can improve the grammar if you want, and check your spelling.

Sometimes people find it useful to set a target, so many words per day, say 100 if you are writing anedotes of life or 500 if you are writing a book. Computer programmes such as word have a Word Count feature you’ll find under the Tools drop-down menu.

So that’s my suggestion. Think of the topic, say school days and talk about it as if you were telling your best friend. Picture your friend sitting beside you. Write as you talk. You could begin with…..

I remember my teacher Mrs……….

Sometimes we used to……….

My favourite subject/teacher/sport was…….

Technorati Tags: getting started, start writing, writing stories

This is a great question to ask others when you’re writing your family history. When I put this question to a group of 20 women recently, most of them had had an imaginary friend in their childhood. They hadn’t thought about these childhood memories for years.

Some of the friends were children around their own age and quite a few had pets, a dog, cat or a bird ….. mine was a horse called “My Lovely” that trotted along behind our family car. One lady had a pet monkey that was a bit naughty and wouldn’t come inside at night.

Our own children had a pair called Big Gossey and Little Gossey. I don’t know what they were these Gosseys but when anything went wrong it was always one of the Gosseys who did it, usually it was Big Gossey’s fault.

When you ask a few questions, you’re bound to find a story about some imaginary friends.

Technorati Tags: childhood memories, Family History, imaginary friends

I decided to share one of my stories about dolls. I loved them. I guess because I was an only child until 7 years old, dolls were my companions.

The photo in the last post was taken on Christmas day…you can tell that because we’re dressed up in our best clothes. I so wanted the latest doll from Santa. It was one of the first kind of walking talking dolls, quite tall and you held its hand and it walked along with you. Very cool for a 5 year old.

My parents always wanted to make me happy, (spoil me I suppose) and Santa left this large box for me and of course inside was the walking doll. I remember that doll was made of a hard material with stiff joints. Not at all cuddly and after the initial excitement I never played with her much. I always prefered my favourite doll that’s in the photo, soft and lovable.

Just thinking a few minutes about a photo can bring back a memory.

Technorati Tags: dolls, Family History, memories

Mum, Dad and daughter. Nothing particularly interesting about this photo….you wouldn’t know where it was, why it was taken. There’s nothing of historical importance either.

However when I thought about it there was a lot to tell….that only Mum, Dad and I would know. These are the steps to where we lived in Rangiatea Rd, Epsom, Auckland, NZ. The house is no longer there but it was a big house and my child mind remembers it as an interesting place. We lived in the front part, turned into a flat. My grand parents and aunt arrived from the UK and lived in the back half of this house. It was fun being altogether.

The property was bordered by Puriri Trees, big specimans – these are evergreen trees, native to New Zealand and produce red berries the size of cherries. I remember being told never to eat them because they were poisonous. However Wikipedia describes them as “unpleasant to eat – it causes the mouth to feel like dried shoe leather” so its a good job I never tried! But the trees were so much fun to climb.

And I’m holding my favourite doll…but that’s another story…..
Beverly

Technorati Tags: describing photos, family photos, memories

This is a way you can show your childhood if you don’t have very many photos. Just adhere the photos to your page and write your story a bit like a narrative.

Start each different section of your childhood in a new paragraph. Just write it down as if you were telling someone the story. And you can write a little caption underneath each photo just like a magazine article if you wish.

Technorati Tags: childhood photos, memoirs, write your story

Don’t they look cute?
When I first put this photo of my husband and his older brother in our album I labelled it “Trolley Time – around 1951″ And on the next page of the album is the following photo labelled “Ian & Lindsay 1956″ This is fine…. as labels go. Just recently I asked Lindsay if he remembered his trolley……

Well, an interesting conversation (the story) followed. Trolleys were built by boys. All one needed was a plank of wood, wheels & axles from the local bike shop, a few big nails to attach the axles to the plank, some strong rope tied to the front wheels for steering and a strong stick attached to the side as a brake. The wooden fruit box-cum-seat Lindsay told me was an added luxury.

Not many cars about, so they drove their trolley down the road. And the Tandem Trolley above had steel wheels which added excitement because they could do “wheelies” or spin out. These were the days when children went off outside playing and building things without fear of hurting themselves or being at risk from others.

I doubt that there are many young children today that have had the pleasure of building their own trolley. It’s these little details that add to the story and make the photos more interesting than just the labels.

Please contact me if you want any help writing your family stories.

Technorati Tags: Old photos, trolleys, writing stories

I love this photo….

When my mother-in-law Nancy, died in 2003 she left a pile of photos in a shoe box, as so many people do. On the back of this one was written “Beth, Nancy & Isobel at Flaxton Beach” From other photos in the box I’ve figured out it was taken around 1939/1940. I don’t know who Beth & Isobel were. I know that Flaxton Beach is near Christchurch in the South Island of New Zealand. So why do I love this photo?

For several reasons…

Firstly, I think it’s a good photo even though its old and I converted it to sepia because it was very grey.

I love how it’s captured a carefree day, three young women going for a walk on the beach out towards the sea. There’s a little breeze. They are still wearing their shoes and socks, carrying their handbags. Picture their pretty dresses in all sorts of colours. Imagine their laughter and chatter as they walked along. I wonder what they talked about, what confidences they shared?

Obviously I didn’t know Nancy then. She suffered some hard times in her 88 years and in the latter stages of her life, when she lived with us, she was neither well nor happy. So for me it’s great to know that when she was younger she did live a happy life and had fun like young women do.

So a photo can tell a bit of a story even if you don’t know the story!

Another aspect about this photo was that it reminded me of a painting or print. I was sure I had seen one somewhere, just like this….of three women walking on the beach. At first I though that Jack Vettriano must have painted one but when I researched him, his pictures are of couples dancing on the beach. If you can shed any light on this I’d love to know if there is such a painting.

2009 has finished.

All the events both happy & sad are now memories. The trouble with our memories is that they fade or even alter if we don’t recall the events frequently. Sometimes we hold onto the sad or horrible memories for too long and in the process the good ones fade or are forgotten.

When I was 17 (a little while ago) I was injured in a car accident around October. I can still recall the rolling of the car, the events that followed and the recuperation from broken ribs and collarbone (I was lucky). But I can’t remember the happy times like Christmas that year, who I spent it with, what I did or what presents I got. In my opinion, I kept the wrong memories.

In my “Book about Me” I’ve writen a page reviewing the past year and I will now do this in January each and every year. I’ll write about the highlights, my acheivements and the people or events that have moved me. This will keep great memories alive for me but also give my (yet to appear) grandchildren an insight into how I lived my life. I think that will be a wonderful gift to leave them when my time comes.

Don’t wait any longer. Start writing your “Book about Me”. Join me by signing up for the Our Family-Our Story Project. Just click on the “Get Started” link on the right side of this page.