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Genealogy,
a hobby once relegated to musty books and microfilmed records, with the
advent of Digital age is well on its way to becoming a national pastime.
It
used to be that people who did genealogy got involved with computers to
help them with genealogy. The
tide has shifted. Now,
we’re finding that people who use computers are becoming interested in
genealogy.
According
to Family Tree Magazine, genealogy is one of America’s fastest-growing
hobbies.
Technology
arguably, has done more for genealogy than Alex Haley’s Pulitzer
Prize-winning book “Roots” and the subsequent TV miniseries did in the
mid-1970’s. “Roots”
inspired millions of Americans to start tracing their own family trees.
Computers are making that endeavor much easier.
Gone
are the days of writing notes on index cards.
Now, genealogists are using computers to track down, and keep track
of, their relatives. Welcome
to an era in which family trees are kept in computer databases, U.S.
censuses are sold on CD-ROMs and e-mail puts long lost cousins in touch
with one another.
Genealogists
still must spend some time poring over books in libraries.
But now, thanks to Internet sites, they also have the convenience
of searching through 1 billion names without ever leaving home.
So,
what does this have to do with scrapbooking?
With information about our ancestors often comes a picture.
Many times we receive a bevy of information and the pictures are
what make them come alive. I have several of my ancestors that I developed a love for
because I can read about their lives and see what they looked like.
A
Heritage album is just what it says it is, a book about your heritage.
They should reflect the era of the pictures included in them.
1960’s? Flower power and peace signs abound.
1860’s? Browns and
beiges would be much more appropriate.
Read your pictures carefully, read the expressions on their faces. Use colors and stickers that would have appealed to those
that are in the pictures.
First
and foremost, those that follow after you deserve to know who came before
you. Preserve your prize
possessions, preserve your family history, and preserve your memories.
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