We lost a lot of the legacy stories when we lost my mom seven years ago, it was sudden. She was sick for 8 weeks with what was later determined to be pancreatic cancer. 

Mom was the glue of the family. She also knew the family stories better than anyone. Unfortunately, as much as we’d intended to, we didn’t get them written down. 

Photos & albums

We had lots of family photos which mom had divided between her & dad’s for their family albums, and each of us kids. But given how young she was when she died we did not anticipate running out of time to get the stories recorded. 

Heirlooms

I inherited a lot of family heirlooms after she died and mom was the only one who knew which grandmother the depression glass belonged to, or who the bone china tea cup came from… I wish I’d written the stories down when she told me before. 

Recorded stories & backup files

One thing I *have* made time for is keeping my children’s photos organized and documented. They are in scrapbooks with journaling to document the who, what, where & when…. film photos printed & mounted in scrapbooks, negatives safely stored, digital photos in printed books, and digital images backed up. There is a gap of about 3 years that I need to go back and fill. And my own photos from prior, as well as the ones from my mom still need to be curated. But I still wish I had those other stories recorded to share with my girls.

A friend of mine once had her laptop stolen, on which all of her photos were stored, and was the only copy. Since then, I’ve been extra careful to backup all photos. And I’ve spent time getting them organized, and still have gaps to work on, but now that I have a system it’s so much easier to maintain things.

I have them up-to-date and in printed photo books up to 2018. I love that. And I hope to get caught up on the rest soon.

Lost legacy stories

Do you know anyone who was devastated by the loss of family legacy stories? Did it motivate you to get your own safeguarded? Do you have tips to share? Or questions about how to do so?

Use the comment section below to share yours!

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