More ice cream

OK, so there is a lot of wisdom we can glean from our elders, but I guess right now, in the dog days of summer, my favorite has to be this one. In recording my aunt's memories of her mother in her final days, Martha, pictured left, recounted this "regret" that my grandmother voiced. "If I had to do it over again, I would have eaten more ice cream and fewer potatoes."
So go ahead, life is uncertain...eat dessert first. Grandma recommends it!

Ellis Island Heritage Award and "The Boss"

My lifetime crush Bruce Springsteen was recently awarded the Ellis Island Family Heritage Award for his "major contribution to the American experience." In accepting the award he repeated the often said "You can't really know who you are...unless you know where you came from". (His great grandmother arrived at Ellis Island from Italy with 5 kids in 1900.)
It reminded me to stop procrastinating and thinking I could "do it later". So I booked that flight and am off to California to see and record my 84 year old aunt, who has lived a life so different from my own. I need to learn her story of a life on a cattle ranch, raising 2 wonderful daughters, her struggles with MS, and hopefully ...maybe... a bit more about her sister, my birth mother.
So think about where you really want to go on your vacation this year. It might be best spent making connections with your past.
It may help you know where you are going.

“When an old man dies, a library burns down.” African Proverb

Take the time, take a flip video camera, take a tape recorder, it really is simple. Capture the wisdom, humor, and learn something new.
Just talk, ask questions, go through photo albums. Every picture tells a story, it's so glib, but so true.
What do you think this story is? Trust me, there are at least 19 of them! Click here for a partial answer, and see what we can do with Photo Stories.

Barbara H. Vaughan
Member, Association of Personal Historians

"What a story! "

These are 3 of the sweetest words I hear upon sharing a completed Photo Story with a client's family. For me, it means I've helped someone capture an important part of themselves and their life and enabled them to share it in a special way. If those words are followed by "I'd love to hear more", it's icing on the cake! Photo Story can open the floodgates of memories and stories, shared, forgotten or often unknown, in new and wonderful ways. I'd love to help you discover or rediscover some of your family history.
Click here for a short demo (edited for length and audio content) of what I can help you create.

Barbara H. Vaughan
Member, Association of Personal Historians

WOW! love love love this!

Imagine opening your email to those sweet words. Comments like that are what makes helping create a "PhotoStory" for a birthday celebration so wonderful for me. Spending time with a new friend, choosing photos that represent significant memories in her life, hearing and recording her stories, both happy and sad, these are all a gift to me.
I hope the gift we are making for her to share with her family brings even more "wows".
Click here for a short demo (edited for length and audio content) of what we can create together.

Barbara H. Vaughan
Member, Association of Personal Historians

"I didn't know that about her" and the power of music.

Well, a friend turned 100 yesterday, quite a milestone I think you'd agree. The PhotoStory we put together to show at the celebration included clips from some of her favorite songs. Upon hearing them played to HER photos, she piped up with stories that some family gathered there had never heard. Each song had a significance that we did not appreciate until that moment. It was an incredible look into a personal history. It was her gift to us.

"Nobody knows her this way" she said.

So, I'm helping a new friend, whose mother is in a lovely nursing retirement facility, pull together some photos. We plan to put them into a "PhotoStory" to show and celebrate her mother's upcoming birthday. As you would expect, my friend begins to reminisce about holidays, family gatherings and other memorable occasions. I love hearing these stories, they remind me of our basic human connection. But as she picked up I stunning photo of her mother as a young woman, she made a comment that has haunted me since. "No one here knows her this way".
I'd like to change that. We are planning to share this "PhotoStory" with the staff and volunteers at the facility to enable them to more fully appreciate and help the person her mother was and still is.
Capturing the story of a loved ones history and life can serve so many purposes. I'd love to help you.
Barbara H. Vaughan
Member, Association of Personal Historians