Family Heritage Scrapbook

I've taken it upon myself to start working on a history of our family in a heritage scrapbook, in between everything else that I'm doing. It is a huge, daunting prospect! Many hours have been spent doing research both online and through conversations with older members of the family.

My fathers' mother on the left
with her brother and sister
as teenagers

I regret not tackling this project sooner. A lot of information has been lost forever with those who are no longer with us. How I wish I'd spent more time with my grandparents, asking questions about their lives and listening to their stories.

Luckily, there are some histories written down from different branches of the family that I will be able to draw information from to fill in some of the blanks. There will, however, be information more challenging or impossible to retrieve at this point. I'm very sad about that.

A LOT of my time has already been spent scanning old photos shared with me by cousins and aunts. I must say that it's been worth the effort though. What a treasure trove of visual reminders of days past and lives well lived! I hope I will be able to do justice to them in the end.

My mother, aged 3-4,  with
her paternal grandparents

Unfortunately, so many of those photos are in pretty rough shape; faded, torn, folded, water damaged, etc. It's a miracle that they are still around, I suppose, but I would love to restore the worst of them for my scrapbook before they are beyond saving.

As I said before, it is a pretty daunting task that I have taken on. I pray that I am up for the challenge. I'll tackle it one page at a time and with luck be able to scan and make copies to share with other members of the family down the road.