As we are looking through our old photographs I noticed that a few of them I didn’t even know who some of the people were in the photo let alone when and where it was taken. I even have a couple of pictures where I got my oldest and youngest son confused until I looked at the other people, the surroundings and the clothes being worn. My oldest and youngest son is about 13 years apart in age and they looked very similar at certain ages. As you write your biography you will no doubt want to refer to old pictures to refresh your memory about events that were taking place at the time. It is so hard to remember every detail but with a little persistence and getting into a good habit of recording who, what, where, and when on the photos themselves it will be easier, later on, to record a story or two that future generations would enjoy hearing about. Remember to use a felt tip pen to not damage the photo and allow the ink to dry before touching it.
We tried to take videos of family gatherings but did not make any comments at the beginning, during (sometimes) or even at the ends. Now it is so difficult to recall the exact year. This is especially true if you have your old VHS or even older films converted over to digital. We hope you will begin today recording some basic information on your current photos. With the new digital properties box for each file, you can record some basic information and save it. And as you scan in those old photos you might want to enlist the help of your other family members to type in some basic information. Once you get into this habit keep it up. Sometimes I put the photos in folders with the occasion and date as the name of the folder that way you can access it quickly when you want to recall an event or choose a photo to add to your biography.
We hope you will share your own tips with our readers and if you have your own remembrance website please send us the link and we will feature it on ours to help others in the future. Photos and videos are two of the best sources of inspiration when writing your own biography with old journals being one of the best.
more on that next time.
