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6 Ways to Preserve Family Stories This Thanksgiving

In just a few days, those of us here in the United States will celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. Family members will travel across the country (sometimes, around the world) to be together on this special day that is steeped in tradition.

And while this would seem to provide ample opportunity to reconnect and spend quality time together, we Americans are busy people. We often disburse into various groups:

  • Those who watch the Macy’s parade on television.
  • Those who participate in local Turkey Trot races (often done in an attempt to compensate for the overabundance of calories they will consume later that day).
  • Those who gather to watch the football game.
  • Those who go brave the elements (and the crowds) to jump-start their Christmas shopping.
  • Those who bustle around the kitchen preparing the day’s feast…and the list goes on.

Yet there’s one time that you can be certain that everyone will gather in one place: When the food is served.

Typically, this brief time together is full of laughter and catching up with each other’s latest endeavors. But with a little advanced planning, you can extend this time of fellowship and turn it into an opportunity to share and preserve your family history. Here’s how: Read More

4 Benefits of a Company History
images

Source: Creative Commons

Recognizing and utilizing a company’s history is often a key factor in its long-term success. I was reminded of this recently during my children’s 4-H meeting at our local Chick-fil-A restaurant. As you may be aware, this fast-food chain does a great job making its history known to the public (and they highly encourage customers to share their own stories).

Following our brief meeting, the 4-Hers were invited to take a behind-the-scenes tour of the kitchen and service areas. Throughout the tour we learned all kinds of interesting facts, including how the company has creatively solved problems to achieve its current success. The end result of the tour? The kids were thrilled with the free ice-cream cone, and it solidified in the adults’ minds that it is a place worthy of our repeat patronage.

Now, this is not to say that you have to offer tours of your facilities to net increased customer loyalty. What it is suggesting, however, is that telling your company’s history is important. Consider the additional areas within your company that benefit from a company history:

  • Empowers Leadership – When problems arise, it’s sometimes difficult to know which direction to take. By reviewing how your company overcame challenges in the past – what core values and techniques they employed – you can often duplicate or modify those ideas to successfully solve the current situation.
  • Promotes Company Culture – What better way to unify your employees than by showcasing that they are part of something bigger than themselves? Demonstrate how their employment has helped to make a difference in the world on a local, national and/or global scale. It also offers them a vision of where the company is going.
  • Encourages Partnerships – Making your company history available to others promotes transparency and fosters key business partnerships. By honoring your company’s past, it shows your commitment to its future.
  • Improves Public Relations – Companies are always looking for positive publicity.  The release of a company history can help garner new clients, increase loyalty, and make you the talk of the town (or Facebook or Twitter… you get the idea).

Whether you create a full-color hardcopy book or eBook and/or incorporate a timeline onto your public website, company histories are a fantastic way to achieve brand definition, increase visibility, and celebrate successes (particularly milestone anniversaries).

Has your company or organization ever promoted its history? Do you have additional ideas about this concept? Please share them in the comments section.

Looking for assistance in creating a company history? Contact Dalene at DBickel@lasting-legacies.net and view samples of her work.

6 Ways to Organize, Restore and Preserve Family Photos
Jumbled Old Photos

Source: Creative Commons

If you have ever owned a camera, then you most likely possess numerous boxes and drawers filled with family photographs and original negatives. Despite your good intentions, they continue to languish in disorganized heaps rather than being artfully displayed in picture frames or creatively designed in scrapbooks.

Digital photos, too, can be reduced to mere clutter – they fill memory cards, slow down hard drives and get dumped into unnamed desktop folders.

What is the solution? How can you move from simply being the caretaker of those buried photos to being the curator of a display that can be enjoyed by all of your family and friends?

  1. Start Small
    Even though this may seem obvious, tackle one stack at a time to avoid feeling overwhelmed. Recognize that looking at photos is an inherently slow process because memories are associated with each one. It is natural to stop and reflect for several moments before moving on to the next photo. Thus, you might consider videotaping the process so you can verbally and visually document the entire memory, rather than just labeling a name, place and date. This will make it much easier to expand on that particular memory and group of photos should you later decide to write your personal history or memoir.
  2. Gather Appropriate Supplies
    When working with actual prints, always be sure to use archival, acid-free supplies such as pens, pencils (preferably no.4 or no.6), papers, photo albums and storage boxes. Not so long ago, it was common practice to simply write information on the back of a picture with whatever writing utensil happened to be within reach. However, the pressure of writing with the pen often causes an embossed version of the lettering on the front of the photo. Most people have also seen the detrimental affects of placing photos in old-fashioned cellophane-and-glue photo albums; the glue dries out, causing photos to fall out of the album (the glue itself sometimes damages the pictures) and the pages become brittle and yellowed. Archival supplies can be purchased at most craft and hobby stores, as well as online at specialty sites such as www.archivalmethods.com and www.gaylord.com.
  3. Scan
    If at all possible, take the time to scan each page of the old album before gently removing the pictures. This will not only safeguard the actual photos, but also preserve an image of the original handwriting and honor the time and effort it took a loved one to create the finished, albeit now defunct, heirloom. It’s also important to scan each of your loose photos from that heap in your drawer. This will digitize the images so that you can easily (and safely) store, share, and create prints from them. If you don’t own a flatbed scanner, a great alternative is a small mobile scanner (check out those offered at www.flip-pal.com).
  4. Photo Restoration
    What can you do if a photo is cracked, the corner torn, or the color has faded? Thanks to today’s technology, you can try your hand at photo restoration with your own photo editing software. Most photo processing locations (including your local pharmacy chains and big box stores) also offer these types of minor restoration services.  But what happens if your photos have experienced water damage? Contrary to popular belief, many of these photos can be salvaged. If you want to tackle the process on your own, check out the tips at http://www.scanmyphotos.com/blog/water-damage-dont-panic. You can also hire a qualified photo conservation professional.
  5. Organize
    Once your photos have been scanned, label them with as much detail as possible, and group all photos of a particular event in one folder (also appropriately labeled by event and date, if known). This should be done with both the physical pictures (placing them in acid-free albums or photo storage boxes) and the digitized versions on your computer’s desktop. Don’t forget to back up your pictures by saving them onto flash/thumb drives and/or uploading the photos to online photo storage sites such as www.smugmug.com or www.flickr.com.
  6. Create and Share
    This is the fun part! After all of your hard work sorting, scanning, labeling, and preserving your photos, now you can get creative and produce tangible and/or virtual albums to share with family and friends. Online photo sites such as www.snapfish.com enable users to create customized photo books, calendars, gift cards and more. If you would like to create a photo book that includes large amounts of accompanying text, consider using a print-on-demand company such as www.blurb.com.  Or, for those who embrace the Internet, www.pinterest.com can serve as a portal for family members to store and exchange photos, stories, and genealogical research.

Now that you have a plan of attack in place, go grab a handful of photos. Don’t expect to get through your entire collection in one day, but if you pace yourself and whittle away at it a little bit each week, you will soon have an empty drawer. Most importantly, have fun and enjoy the memories!

Have additional photo preservation tips to share? Please share them in the comments section.

About Dalene


Dalene Bickel is an author, book coach and ghostwriter of nonfiction and historical fiction who loves to help beginning writers become established authors.

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