Dean's Gift

My great-aunt, Dean, left to my care all the genealogical data she'd complied upon her death.  It may be that she saw my interest in the subject, or, being childless, left it to the one relative she knew loved her unconditionally.

Her nephews confiscated all the considered collection upon her death.  Rumour had it Dean had information linking the family directly to the Cherokee or Choctaw tribes; and not one of them were going to trust anyone else to register one without registering all.  Years later, after all the materials were scoured over, the inheritance began filtering to its intended repository.  Apparently, no treasure was ever gleaned from the scrutiny of very selfish men.

Dean was a prolific writer, if nothing else.  It's still possible that one small informational tidbit might be buried within the boxes of materials; however, everyone missed the greatest treasure of all!  Dean faithfully wrote down all the stories passed on to her from her mother, who had been passed down stories of her mother and grandmother.  That's five generations of history!!  The largest (and I suspect most examined) journal contains over 900 pages of handwritten text.  She also wrote another six or seven journals, which only containing about 100 pages each.  Only!

I've had all the material now for well over 15 years now.  At one point I had transcribed almost 200 pages of the handwritten text, and... well, a computer crashed.  I was able to salvage everything but the first 90 pages.  That incident tampered the energy invested in the project to that date.  I've since gone back and re-typed the first 30 pages; but darn it, there's only so many hours to each day.

I turned 50 the other day.  As much as the 45th birthday bothered me, this one was infinitely worse.  (At this point, I don't suspect any others will be of much concern.  Old is old.)  The beginning of a new decade on this earth has caused me to sit down and re-evaluate the directions of the remaining time allotted.  It's worth the effort to finish this project and somehow manage to publish the finished work.  I'm not wanting to publish for fame or fortune, but for certain prosperity.  If not I, then who?  Schools are no longer teaching cursive writing, and full generations - if ever again - will be unable to decipher the texts without specialized training.  I have at least one hour each day to devote to this project... if I'm very careful.

My maternal grandparents are part of the full telling, but their role ends early into their adulthood.  The smaller journals tells a story of her life.  That leaves most of my grandparent's stories untold, and nothing includes my mother's generation..  

I'm a little ambitious.  What if...?  I tell my life story and include it as part of the generational saga. This would become a story recording over 150 years of family history.  There would be a 1.5 generational gap, but this certainly doesn't mean it can't or shouldn't be done, to be appreciated by some distant descendant of mine.  How incredible if the generation after me (be they sons or nephew or niece) added their story, and so on.

Before my mother died, I begged her for her life's history.  In an effort of compromise, I told her I'd be willing to accept a sanitized version; all to no avail.  It's here that I have to stop and wonder whether I would be able to do the same thing asked of my mother.  There are many regrets and aspects of my life, that in retrospect, would not be so family friendly; especially the teen and early adult years.  Could I offer an accurate glimpse of this life while leaving most of the stories to the reader's ability to read between the lines?  Or could I simply hold back this portion of the story, to be released upon my death?  I've heard dead people don't embarrass so easily!  :)  And thinking along these lines, perhaps this is the same reason Dean guarded her stories until after death!

I'm mulling these ideas currently.  I've never lived an extraordinary life, nothing tangible changed by my existence on the world (except a few lives perhaps?)  Yet, the historian urges began early in life and through one means or the other, I've documented much of the happenings while here.  It wouldn't be a mean fete to pull it all together in the time remaining.  I'll decide at the end of the week whether to tackle the project.

In the meantime, I'll re-start transcription efforts beginning Monday morning.  The most consuming question here is how - HOW, I ASK! - to format the history to a scrapbook format.

More Ways to Save

I've mildly ranted about the cost of storage; mildly, because it's part and parcel of the craft.  I'd like to share today another nifty way to save money while keeping scrapbook items organized.

Over the year I've grown quite the patch of flowers... paper and silk primarily.  Between Cricut, dies, and templates there's almost an endless assortment.  I also enjoy crafting three-dimensional paper ribbons and embellishments.   Like everything else, it didn't take long before a system had to be put in place to accommodate the collection.

I've saved six stacking plastic ice cream half-gallon buckets.  They're scatter throughout the craft closet.  Some labeled, some not.  Even still, they all look the same at a quick glance.  So I've decided to colour code the containers so that in an instant I'll know a particular bucket contains flowers, brads, etc.  Red indicates flowers.

Organizational Work in Progress

 

 

 

 

No, not exceptionally pretty in this DIY project, either; however, I'll probably attach a large flower on each side and the top of the lid to pretty it up a little bit.  The image will also assist as a visual clue to others who like to sneak into the closet and design something wonderful for me!  (This happens often, much to my great delight!)

In time, I'll have a colour coded embellishment organizational system in place.  There might be acid content concerns for hard-core scrappers, but for my purposes, it should work fine. 
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When meeting Martin's mother for the first time she pulled out a decades old scrapbook.  A woman ahead of her time.  I could tell she rightly held this as a prized family possession.  The amazing part of the physical scrapbook was that despite the decades, and despite a lack of concern of the obsession we have with acid and lignum today, the book had not deteriorated.  Yes, there was some fading and yellowing, (in my opinion perfect seasoning) but the overall quality remained excellent.  It's probably a good idea to construct albums with perpetuity in mind, but as I've just described, it might not be as critical an issue as some make it to be. Maybe.

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Yet another recently finished page!

Silly Night

Christmas Eve
December 24, 2011