Make History Contest: Kinds of Projects

We’re quickly coming up on the halfway point for our Make History Contest, and let me tell you how excited I am one more time: I’m SO EXCITED!  What can I say?  I love, love, love my job and the idea of being able to sit down and work with someone who might not normally think to record the history of their life, loved one, or family is thrilling!

So, I’m posting this two part “how-to” for explaining the “project you have in mind” in the hopes that it encourages ALL of you to enter.  We’re giving away three packages total, and entrants have their pick depending on what would work best with their finished goals, either a Legacy Package or a Heritage Package. 

I will start by explaining the difference:

1.  Legacy Packages: Are our interview packages (to sum it up kind of generically).  This package is great because it helps you (or the subject you choose) tell their story in their own words.  Some examples of what we can do with this package:

• We can gather photographs and interviews from a couple and their friends and family about how they met and fell in love.  Our skilled staff will write, design and print a one of a kind, bound, high-quality memoir which can be given as an anniversary gift or displayed at a wedding or family reunion.  This is great for a young or old couple. 

• If you want to give an heirloom book as a gift, we can create it without the subjects knowledge, we can use stories and anecdotes from friends and family members to create a biography of the subject. 

• If you just want to tell your story, we can help you do that.  Our experienced, professional interviewers will meet with you on your schedule and we will lead you through questions that will help bring to life your stories. 

• Other ideas include creating a Graduation Book, with photos stories and assignments from the grad’s early years; Baby Books, showing pictures of mom and dad during the pregnancy, along with ultra sound pictures or stories of baby’s first months or years.

• We can pretty much create any kind of memory book you can imagine, if you can dream it up, e-mail it to us, and we’ll let you know what it will take to get it done.

2.  Heritage Packages: These are our research packages.  This package is best when you are curious or interested in a subject that is further removed: an ancestor, or relative who is no longer alive, a family bible, trinket, photograph, or document.  Our researchers will use all of our resources and experience to search for information on the subject, then we will compile it all into a beautiful narrative book complete with images and individually designed by our talented staff.  Here are some examples of great uses of Heritage Packages:

• Bev approached me about a conversation that she had had with her grandfather as a girl, she heard that he had come over with two of his sisters from Norway in the 1800s.  She thought she remembered one of the sisters married a musician and the other  was named Mary and married a French man with whom she lived in central Minnesota.  Bev didn’t have time to sift through the stacks at the historical society, she didn’t know where to start when it came to verifying records from the internet, plus, she really wanted something tangible for her family to keep instead of just a stack of papers that would be disposed of when she wasn’t around any longer. 

Our Solution:  To research these siblings and their lives we took notes on what Bev knew, or thought she remembered, we were able to find records for all three siblings, and their day to day lives.  They immigrated to Wisconsin, and lived together there until they were all married.  We discovered that while not everything that Bev remembered turned out to be right, the puzzle pieces came together to tell a story of Bev’s family in a way she couldn’t have imagined, she even learned that there were several other siblings who remained in Norway!

• Dianne had a watch that she’d inherited from her grandmother, she had a picture of her grandfather holding it at his wedding.  Dianne had never met her grandfather, she knew the watch must have been important to him, but she really wanted context.  She wanted to understand his life a little better. 

Our Solution:  To have professional photos taken of the watch, Dianne also had some photos of her grandparents that she needed restored.  Armed with this we set out to research the man and the watch.  We found records of his life and where he lived, we even found some photographs that Dianne didn’t know existed along with some news clippings about his involvement in the community.  Dianne received a book depicting the life and times of her grandfather, and a family tree displaying the names of the descendants of her grandfather so far, and annotations of those to whom the watch had passed.  Now, when she passes the watch down to one of her children or grandchildren, they will never have to wonder where the mysterious timepiece came from. 

The beauty of the Heritage Package is that we can start from almost anything, we can determine with some preliminary research whether we can find enough information on your subject to accomplish your goals, and you risk nothing.  If we cannot find any information, then you walk away.  If we can, you recieve a treasure that you can pass down throughout the generations.  Of course, with the Make History Contest you risk nothing anyway!

Part II will be posted on Monday, stay tuned for more information on the Make History Contest!!

Related Posts:

1. CONTEST: Make History
2. History Hobbyists Can Make a Difference
3. Personal History
4. Your Own Personal History
5. Your Own Personal History Part II