The holidays are for sharing family photos and stories

Not a holiday, but a family (mine) enjoying a photo album together. This is a newspaper clipping from the Idaho Statesman, in 1965, when the new minister and his family came to town.

When do β€œthe holidays” begin and end for you? For me, they start with Thanksgiving and end on January 1st. Halloween serves as a heads-up: The holidays are coming!

No matter what holidays you celebrate, if you are lucky enough to have a family that enjoys getting together (in person or virtually), it’s the perfect time for sharing family photos and stories. It’s also a great opportunity to learn from your elders, share your genealogy discoveries, and create new memories.

 

 

 

 

What holidays do you celebrate with family? Do you share photos and stories? Click To Tweet

Here is a roundup of inspiring posts by some of my favorite resources, all of whom are featured in my book, What’s a Photo Without the Story? How to Create Your Family Legacy.

At Thanksgiving, we can create history for our descendants β€” Janine Adams, Organize Your Family History

Family Stories: Eat Them Up This Thanksgiving and All Year Round β€” Thomas MacEntee, Genealogy Bargains

5 Tips for Gathering Family StoriesΒ  β€” Amy Johnson Crow, Modern Genealogy Made Easy

3 Great Benefits of Crowdsourcing Family Stories From Old PhotosΒ  β€” Lisa Lisson, Are You My Cousin?

Upcoming Family Reunion? Here’s How to Plan Your Group Photo β€” Caroline Guntur, Organizing Photos

Fun Family History Activities for the Holidays β€” Andi Willis, Good Life Photo Solutions

Holiday Photos and Caption Clues β€” Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective

Quick Ways To Share Your Family History β€” Β Crista Cowan, Ancestry

 

And here’s a post I wrote last year containing some (perhaps) surprising tips from me, and gift suggestions from some of the same bloggers, authors, podcasters and service providers shown above:

Gifts for Genealogists and their Families

 

What holidays do you celebrate with family?

Do you take the opportunity to share photos and stories?

Please let us know in the comments below!

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Copyright 2022 by Hazel Thornton, Organized for Life and Beyond
Author of What’s a Photo Without the Story? How to Create Your Family Legacy
PleaseΒ contact me for reprint permission. (Direct links to this page are welcome!)
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5 Comments

  1. Sara Skillen on November 21, 2022 at 1:29 pm

    Great timing for me with this post – we’re actually collecting photos and videos of our dogs to share with our kids (we’ll be traveling to them this year). And we often create a digital slideshow for their birthdays, combining photos from throughout that year.

    Now I have some great posts to read inspire me further on my drive this week!

    Also, how great is it that they used to put pictures of the “new minister” and his family in the paper?

    • Hazel Thornton on November 22, 2022 at 11:28 am

      Hi Sara, I hope you enjoy the posts I linked to. Enjoy your time with your kids! And RIP sweet Lucy and Ringo. πŸ™

  2. Seana Turner on November 21, 2022 at 4:54 pm

    I think holiday gatherings are a great time to pull out photos and share stories! We made photo books from family vacations when the kids were growing up, and we leave them out. It is surprising how often the girls pull them out when they are home.

    it’s also a great time to ask my parents about their photos, while they are still around to tell me the stories! I hope we do that this year.

    • Hazel Thornton on November 22, 2022 at 11:31 am

      Double agree to asking about photos and stories while people are still around to tell them! Happy Thanksgiving, Seana!

  3. Julie Bestry on November 28, 2022 at 12:07 am

    In the past 30 years, 99% of the time, I’ve been the only one who has taken any family photos, so I have them all, and except for an interest in looking at them the day I take them, I seem to be the only one who cares to look at them. (They do look at the small collection of “oldie” photos from 50+ years ago, as sometimes take quick scans of them and share to social media.) That said, I love that you shared these resources, even if my small family won’t make use of them.

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