Ethnic Scrapbooking

Preserve Your Treasures

Oh how I wish I could be in Atlanta for this event.

"Treasures"
10:00 am - 4:00 pm, Saturday, February 6
Auburn Avenue Research Library
101 Auburn Avenue, Atlanta, Georgia

The Program will feature welcoming remarks by Lonnie Bunch, museum director.

The “Treasures” program includes the following sessions:

• Preservation Presentations: Four informal basic preservation sessions will take place during the day.  One will focus on textiles, a category that includes cloth dolls, flags, hats, clothing, lace, quilts, needlework and table linens.  The session on photographs and paper will inform participants on simple inexpensive techniques to keep their family Bibles, historic pictures and important documents such as diplomas and wedding licenses safe from deterioration.  A third session of the day explains to potential donors the process of establishing provenance of an object.  Participants will learn what is needed to establish and document the age, place of origin and line of ownership of objects with historical value.  During the fourth session participants will receive tips and resources for recording  and archiving their family’s oral history.
• Hands-on Preservation: Participants are invited to learn how to properly store letters, pack garments and prepare photographs for preservation storage and presentation.
• Oral Histories: Participants may record a brief personal memory, a family story or a memory of a historical event.  Family members are encouraged to interview each other.

Participants can reserve in advance to bring up to three personal items for a 20-minute, one-on-one professional consultation with experts on how to care for them.  The specialists will serve as reviewers, not appraisers, and will not be able to determine an item’s monetary value.  Objects such as books, paper and textiles no larger than a shopping bag (furniture, carpets, firearms, and paintings are excluded) can be reviewed.

Those wishing to have items reviewed must make reservations by emailing treasures@si.edu or by calling toll free, (877) 733-9599. 

Reservations are not required for those not wishing a one-on-one consultation. Additional information is available at www.nmaahc.si.edu.   

Personality Profiles

I'm still in genealogy mode.  Lately, I've been thinking a lot about what future generations will think about me/us.  Every time I do some family resarch I gain another glimpse into the personality of an ancestor.  As I create scapbook pages that feature one photograph (if available) of a relative, I call someone who knew that person and ask some direct questions.  For instance here is Sallie Bett, my GG grandmother.

I really want to know what was going on in her life that she was able to buy a house ( the one we all still gather at) in her name in 1912 when she was a housewife.  Husband #2 was a coalminer, but why is he not listed as owning the house.  I just found out she was also a step mother...what was that like?  Where did she migrate from in Virginia, I'm having a hard time tracking her because of the various spellings of her name and race inconsistencies.

What happened to her first husband, where and how did she meet the second husband?  What was her personality like?  What kind of racial discrimination did she face?

I wish I had focused on her sooner, her last living son just died a few years ago, now he I know and hope to scrapbook his personality real soon.

These are the types of questions I hope some of my research can answer, but in the meantime I MUST get some feedback from her grandchildren (my almost 90 year old grandmother).

Reunion #3

Turpin Family Reunion this past weekend.  We were only able to attend the dinner on Saturday night, but our short visit was nice, met some realtives for the first time, so that's always a good thing. I shared the latest heritage pages I created for this event and did a presentation of our latest geneaology documents.

My presentation wasn't one of my finer ones, but I managed to present three branches and come up with tribute  page content to polish off the family album.

What I mean about tribute pages, is my plan to add journaling to go along with the one photo heritage pages I created for those who have recently passed away.  Using a human easel, I titled a blank page with the person's name and asked the family to tell me what they remembered or admired about that person. 

This is an activity I have been wanting to do for quite a while, it worked well in this setting with a small group (about 30 people).

Heritage Layouts

This weekend we are having a small family gathering with my Grandmother's siblings...I'm preparing a talk to share with them my latest genealogy finds with them and the results of our dna ancestry test.

My goal...GOAL is to have a memorial table of those who have recently passed away and to have mini heritage albums as centerpieces.  I've gotten five of the six memorial labyouts done.  Finding decent photos was the hard part.  SOme of the photos I found were hard copy so they didn't scan so nice nor enlarge, but hey...my deadline is Friday and I have to work with what I have which is better than NOTHING.  My goal is to not be artistic, just a nice presentation for our family album...which I just had scanned and can share electronically with any family member that asks.  This particular family album has 66 pages and that does not include the images you see here and the ones I plan on adding with census docs and newsclippings I found on www.ancestry.com.

I'll post more about my presentation after the events this weekend.

Two comments about this layout...the artificial blue carnation bottom left is from a floral arrangement my dad picked up at her funeral...blue was her favorite color...the letters from her name are glittery...just like her and the photo is my husband's favorite (he shot this photograph of her about 10 years ago)...I guess that was three comments.

Aunt Elsie...my great-grandfather's sister who passed in 2008 in her 90's...she's the aunt I spoke of in my essay published in Chicken Soup for the Scrapbooker's Soul. I played up her denim vest to show her youthfulness and heat embossed the letters for the pearl look of her jewlery.

My grandmother's sister...Aunt Margie (Margeeee) my favorite aunt, we talked for hours on the phone...I would frequently have sunday dinner with her and her husband while I was in college, they lived within blocks of my dorm.

Aunt Stella...I forced my kids to look at her good at her funeral...I told them to make me look just as beautiful as she was in that casket...whew she looked good.  She had an infectious laugh that just made everyone laugh and smile...I didn't get to see her much, but she always knew what was going on in my life and made feel special and close to her.

what do you start a layout with..the paper or the photo...how about the letter T...it was a scrap from something and I designed the whole layout around the letter T...silly or not...I love how it turned out.  Paper was from a Classy Coordinates kit (hoarding two years worth) for special use...and this was it. 

I really like the chipboard name plate...

Love for Scrapbooks=PAID WORK

See there is work in the federal government if you love and care for scrapbooks (other than working at the Smithsonian).  I can across this solicitation today "Digitization of non-textual records, scrapbooks", So there is hope that one day my love for scrapbooks will bring me real money! LOL

Digitizing is what I'm about lately,  I organized my digital images from just one family line last Friday...took about three hours.  Here's something textual I cam across.

It's a sermon written by my great-great grandfather, my dad scanned it for me a few years ago.  Looks like I'll have to re-scan it (1) one page at a time, at a higher dpi (2) stitch it together if it's too big for the flatbed.

How precious is this.  Already I have printed it out as background paper to use on a project for his kids (now 70+ years old).  I trust all of my large-scale scanning and digitizing to Monica at www.harborscrapbooking.com

The House

I am very fortunate that my GG Grandmother's house is still standing and that we still have family gatherings there.  Recently, when we were all gathered there for my Great Aunt's funeral, we found a new scrapbook.  One particular party that was held in the house was my Great Grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary in 1965. I study these photographs for the little details, how the room was decorated, the china, the punch bowl, glassware and etc.

Here's one of those photos that I've seen more than a dozen times.  What I never noticed before is that I am the infant my Dad is feeding to the right!  LOL!!!

You Are the Window to Your Family's Past

This is the topic of a speaking engagement I have this weekend.  As I was preparing my text for this event, my husband came across this note (in the garage) I jotted down more than 2 years ago. 

 

Should this be a rare scrap of paper, let's say my great great granddaughter finds one day, what will she know about me from this list?  She'll know, at a minimum, the following:

1. I worked in publishing (somewhat true, I had a book published)
2. I drive (well in this case I had to have someone drive me around for 2 days)
3. I had allergies (pollen was so high my eyes constantly watered and I couldn't drive)
4. A "grandmother" was in a home (my husband, Jerry's grandmother had alzheimers and was placed in assisted living home)
5. I went to Florida (went to florida on a business trip, over a weekend)
6. Some one graduated (my first cousin had yet another graduation from a medical feloowship program)
7. Peggy had Cancer (my mother's sister started her battle with breast cancer)
8. Oh yeah...I was stressed!

Now if I had found something similar of my Great-Great Grandmother, I would be in heaven, but then full of questions.  Whether we acknowledge it or not we are the window to our family's past.  So I'll add this note to the back of an album I actually did create about my daily life in April 2007 with a bit more details about the stress in my life.

Heritage Event in Maryland

Harbor Scrapbooking is hosting a Heritage Theme Crop on July 12, 2009 from 10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. at the Annapolis Elk’s Club in Edgewater, MD.
 
There is still space left for this all day crop with mini seminars about Heritage scrapbooking.

You do not have to be working on a heritage scrapbook to attend this crop.   However, by attending you can learn interesting information and references to use in the future, when you are working on a heritage album. The crop is open to anyone who wants to spend time scrapbooking, taking classes, or attending the mini seminars. 

Heritage layout by Janet Johnson

Attendees will have access to all of the mini seminars, classes, shopping with vendors, use of Harbor Scrapbooking scanning and printing services, and will receive a Heritage Resource folder containing presentation slides, a CD, and other heritage related information).

There are three registration options available:

• Crop space, two meals, and goodie bag – $50.00
• One meal and goodie bag – $20.00
• Goodie bag – $10.00

This Family Heritage Theme Crop also offers one-on-one consultations with a Genealogist and heritage-style page layout classes.

Speaker topics include:
 
"You Are the Window to Your Family's Past"

Lisa Sanford, Author of the book Ethnic Scrapbooking, will explore why we as scrapbookers must gather and document our family heritage. She will also discuss how to bring your family together while investigating the past.

Other experts will be on hand sharing their tips on genealogy.

Family Reunion Mode

Back from vacation in St. Croix, VI where 20 of us relaxed and enjoyed a week long family reunion without any major incidents i.e. arguments.  I can't wait to do it again. (check out my Facebook photoalbum for some photos) Now I am in full family historian, geneaology, heritage preservation mode.

Pop on over to an article about my parenting style and how I TRY to relate to our ancestors.CLICK HERE

Then check out how I reunited with an old friend through Facebook.

See a new photograph of an ancestor I found while in St. Croix by clicking here

Beach # 4 of 4!  We had an absolute blast!

Honoring Aunt Elsie

The last sibling of my great grandfather just passed away this week.  Aunt Elsie was 98 years old.  I didn't get to share my most recent geneaology find with her, that I found just 5 days before she passed.  Using Ancestry.com my Dad and I found her mother on the 1880 census records as a 4 year old child.  This spectacular find also enabled us to add one more generation on this particular branch of our family tree.

Here's the most recent photograph of Aunt Elsie.

Here she is as a child with my great grandfather, her brother. I have to look in my Dad's scrapbook to remember which one she is in this photo.

This post reminds me that I haven't scrapbooked this side of my family yet...I have over 70 albums completed, but I so many more that NEED to be completed.

Here's the LINK to a scrapbook page I created about her mother.  And here's the link to the book where I mention Aunt Elsie, she was a critical reason why I started scrapbooking.