Several years ago we inherited my husband's family scrapbooks which were compiled by
his mother and grandmother, the earliest dating back to the late 19th Century.  


Married in 1895, Bob's grandparents documented their life and the lives of their rural neighbors through newspaper clippings and photographs.  And, yes, we realize how lucky we are to have such treasures.

Hence, my latest project - preserving the family heritage and salvaging the fading photographs and yellowed, crumbling scrapbooks.  These books are a fascinating glimpse into one
of the most tumultuous eras in history and I feel the weight
of the responsibility.  One of the books, alone, is dedicated to
WWII and the sacrifices made by that small community.  

                                  

 

The hundreds of newspaper clippings are mostly  wedding, birth, and funeral announcements but there are human interest stories, too - a barn raising, reports on crops, rationing during the war.  Needless to say, the project has taken over the house but it's a productive and humbling feeling.


If you have family documents, I urge you to preserve them now.  I don't endorse many products but I suggest you purchase a handheld scanner if you're considering such a project.  The scanner has completely made this undertaking possible - otherwise, we would have had to disassemble the scrapbooks to copy them.  

Working on the photographs and scrapbooks is a lot of work but it's also a lot of fun.
Is it me or does Bob's great-uncle Bradley look just like the actor Casey Affleck?!