Enough already! You can turn off the snow machine!

You gave us a hint of Spring yesterday and almost a foot of snow today!

Yesterday there were birds flying happily (Cardinals) and fighting fiercely (Blue Jays). Today they are nowhere to be found. Probably hunkered down like the rest of us. 

So Cabin Fever continues! But wait something is wrong with this picture because the genealogical traveling season is approaching. Conferences. Research trips. We can't do this in the snow. This has to stop. I want Spring on my desk at 6:00am tomorrow morning! No excuses!

In a little over a month many of us will be heading to Kalahari for a water park/genealogy conference. Then to Richmond, Virginia, for the NGS Conference. And, finally to San Antonio ,Texas for the FGS Conference. 

Unfortunately this year my water heater, car, and washing machine malfunctioned, so I am looking at Kalahari/OGS being my only conference this year. But I think it is going to be a great event and I am looking forward to "blogging" you through it.

Pictures Fill In The Dash!

I posted pictures of my late husband on Facebook on his birthday. It was a great hit with lots of feedback. Everyone loved seeing the pictures. And, they all knew who everyone was. In some cases they identified people in the pictures that I didn't know. Everyone relived memories. There were sad moments and happy memories. Eventually other people started posting their own pictures and soon Facebook was alive with memories.

It reminded me of the days when my aunts would get those boxes of pictures off the top shelf of the linen closet after Thanksgiving dinner and we would all sit around the dining room table and rewind history.

I remember those boxes of pictures. Those pictures brought back so many memories and images of people we never had the chance to meet. I loved sitting there in the 1940's at the old Victorian dining room tables that my aunts had inherited.

Since then our family has divided and multiplied and all of those pictures have scattered. And I can almost guarantee that only a small portion of the people in those photos have been identified.

I have no quick solution to this problem. I have started to make some progress by eliminating the "scenery" pictures. In my case that would be all those sunset pictures we took on the beach in Florida. And all those mountain pictures from out West. Just keep the pictures with family and friends. For me, this greatly reduced the amount of pictures in the big box. (By the way, friends do not include the wet t-shirt contestants on the beach during Spring Break.)

Once you get to this point I think we are all on our own. As for photo albums, I have a neighbor who has created beautiful scrapbooks of her family. Too labor intensive for me! I prefer the "throw everything into a box" method. That way you can put the box in the middle of the table and everyone can grab a picture. Just like we used to.

My point? Pictures are worth a thousand words, so I have been told. What better way to fill in the dash than with pictures of your ancestors. But it doesn't work if you can't identify them!