Start New Traditions This Holiday Season

Traditionally; Thanksgiving celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November is an annual North American holiday. The first Thanksgiving being celebrated in 1621 by the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians. People throughout the United States gather with family and friends to enjoy their Thanksgiving meal. Thanksgiving is the perfect time to remember family and friends. It is a time to tell stories from the past and make new stories for the future. Here are a number of ways to celebrate and create memories that last a lifetime.

Thanksgiving Photo Albums
Each holiday whether it be Thanksgiving or any other holiday, capture memories by taking photos of family and friends.

Take photos as you prepare the meal and photos of guests arriving into your home. Throughout the day take candid photos of family interactions. Make sure you get photos of the photographer. Many times the person taking the photos gets left out of the albums. Include everyone at your party in the photos. Photograph a group shot of everyone sitting at the dinner table. If you cannot fit everyone at one table get everyone outside or in a separate room for a group shot. Layout the photos in a photo album with labels to explain who is in the photo. Label the photo album with the Holiday and Year so that you can begin a series of albums. Each year pull out old albums and talk about the photos with your family.

Record Family Stories to Preserve Family History
You may have heard grandpa’s story about how he met your grandmother or about how he received the medal of honor but do you have it recorded? You hear the same stories over and over again but never write them down. You may often wonder what your kids are going to remember about your parents. Now is the time to take control of those memories.

• Record the story with a video camera (if available). If you have a video camera it is a wonderful way to capture the emotions of the individual telling the story.
• Use a tape recording device. If someone is uncomfortable being on video you can record them on a tape or even just document the story on paper.

1. When were you born?
2. What is your earliest childhood memory?
3. What was your favorite thing to do for fun growing up?
4. What was school like (grade school, highschool, college)?
5. Did you play any sports? Were you ever in the newspaper? What newspaper?
6. What were some events you remember growing up? How did they impact your life?
7. Did you have any family traditions?
8. What is the oldest relative you remember? What were they like?
9. When did you meet your spouse? How did you meet?
10. Can oo describe your wedding? Wedding party? Who came to the wedding?
11. What jobs did you have throughout your life?
12. Favorite cars?

No matter how you record your stories keep these things in mind:

• Make the person comfortable. If you are not prepared it can make the person uncomfortable. Have some questions prepared ahead of time and show you are truly interested by focusing in on the story not just on recording it.
• Record the story one on one, in a quiet setting. If there are too many people around it can be noisy and hard for the person being interviewed to concentrate. It may also be hard to hear what they are saying.
• Keep the interviews short no longer than 45 minutes at a time. You can make the interview into segments as opposed to one long story.

Research Your Family History
Start your genealogical research. The holidays are the perfect time to begin researching your family history and recording your family tree. It is a great time to get the whole family involved and working together to preserve your past. Here are some ways to get started recording your history.

• Begin by talking to your parents, and grandparents. Everyone has two parents, four grandparents and eight-great grandparents. Get as much information as possible by talking to your family. Begin recording the information on a pedigree chart.
• Try finding ancestors using census records such as marriage, birth and death records. Many of these items can be found online through websites such as ours and ancestry.com. You can find many of these records using the Social Security Death Index.
• If you live in the greater Boston area you can join us at our research library on 99 Newbury Street. We have experts in the field of genealogy available Tuesday – Saturday to assist you with your research.
• For more information on getting started researching your family history see our Getting Started section.
• If you would like assistance getting started with your research contact our Research Services department. Ask them about our special $99.00 package deal.