Your Own Personal History

“What kind of History do I have?  There isn’t anything interesting about me, or my heritage…”

These are surprisingly common sentiments.  The great thing is, it isn’t true!  If you are living and breathing, you have an important valuable contribution to make to the preservation of history.  It is commonly said that history is written by the winners; when we read history books, they are accounts by the successful, rich, prolific people of the era.  We live in a day and age when that is finally changing– as it should.  You no longer have to be from a certain lineage or country to tell your story or the story of your family.  The contributions you make today, can help to paint a canvas that is vastly richer for future generations. 

It may be hard to believe that a hobby like researching your family’s genealogy, or organizing family photos with captions is significant to future generations, but it is!  By taking steps now, we can create a valuable account of our story that issues a perspective of depth and personality which is stereotypically absent from history. 

Here are some examples of things from your life that are worth documenting:

1.  Old Family Recipes:  There is nothing like mom’s potato salad, or great-grandma’s homemade raspberry preserves, I’m lucky to come from a line of amazingly talented women.  How special would it be to pass down an heirloom book of beautiful recipes to a daughter or son as they start a family of their own?  What about having a beautiful book created with recipes written in grandma’s own script and mouth-watering imagery of each of the creations? The Historium works with some of the most talented photographers in the area to create one of a kind keepsake books that can be produced in any number and passed on for generations.

2. Photo Albums:  My Great-Grandmother is turning 100 on Wednesday, and I can’t help but reflect on all of the great stories that she has shared over my life.  I spent hours staring at the pictures on the hallway by her entrance, she’d reflect on my grandfather and his sister as children.  It would be a travesty to lose those stories, all of those memories.  Captions in photo albums are so important, they help to ensure that someday these treasured moments won’t just become nameless faces on fading pages.  If you’d like to take it a step further, you can hire a personal historian to help you transform simple captions into meaningful stories that represent the moments you cherish.  We can create a handmade album, with beautiful archival paper that will give you peace of mind that your photo album will be there to tell the stories that give those pictures meaning. 

3. Bedtime stories:  Maybe you have a real story-teller in the family, some little fantastic tale that was whispered to little ones at the end of the night.  We certainly had a few of those in my family!  Our illustrating and writing specialists can turn those timeless family tales into heirloom books, professionally bound and printed to be kept forever! 

These are just a few examples of what we could do, maybe your family has an elaborate holiday tradition? We can work with you to turn it into a story to entertain and educate generations to come about how you lived your life. 

Stay tuned for Part II which will have ideas for more research oriented projects that The Historium can facilitate!

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1. Personal History