Gather Round the Table: Family History at Thanksgiving
There are certain key moments in the year of a family that cry out for sharing family history. Thanksgiving and the rest of the holiday season are a perfect opportunity to swap stories and a whole lot more. Saving family treasures is about preserving all kinds of artifacts, but it’s also about maintaining traditions and stories.
Dishes and utensils
Families often pass on furniture, dishes and flatware to descendants.
If you have these objects in your house do you know their history?
Do you know who owned them? In museum terms this is the provenance of the object-the whole history of ownership.
Do you know why or when the object was purchased or made?
I own my grandmother’s favorite set of mixing bowls and her pie plate. They are not valuable in the antique sense of the word, but I think of her every time I use them.
Recipes
Discover the tale behind the family recipes on your Thanksgiving table.
Create recipe cards precisely measuring each ingredient before it’s added to the meal so that you’ll have sense of the exact details or record the cooking process with a digital video camera. By the way, a video of grandma or great-grandma actually preparing her favorite holiday meal makes a great gift.
Put together an heirloom cookbook, it’s not too late to do it for this gift-giving season. I’d be happy to help with that type of project.
Picture-taking
With friends and family gathered together for a feast, don’t forget your camera. Take spontaneous pictures of folks arriving, talking and eating. Just make sure you get a photo of everyone.
About Maureen Taylor
Maureen Taylor AKA the Photo Detective is a professional genealogist, author and journalist on the topic who’s written tons of books and magazine articles, as well as being a contributing editor at Family Tree Magazine and editorial board member of Legacy Magazine. She’s also been a featured expert on CNN, the Today Show and in Martha Stewart Living. Maureen can be contacted through her website Photo Detective or on Twitter at @PhotoDetective.
It is possible to survive the holiday season, with sanity intact, by planning ahead and developing a sense of humor. Unexpected visits by relatives and cranky cousins can add to your stress levels, but try to offset the tension with a little family history. Don’t put your charts and notes away for the holidays ~ take them out and show them off!
