Who do you think you are?

I used to be really big into scrapbooking before I returned to the machine and needles which you may know me for. Every afternoon on maternity leave 10 years ago I would lay the babes to sleep and cut and stick for an hour and a half every day. I loved it.

Then I started to make their clothes and mine. I didn't get bored of scrapboooking but I simply ran out of photos and events to journal. I ran my papercraft supplies down but kept the girls books up to date - nothing major though.

I started a family history scrapbook way back then which I used to add to periodically. My great Aunts were alive then so I could ask them about the people in the black and white photos. It was a nice conversation focus when I went to visit them.

Lately, my dad's wife has been giving me little shoe boxes of his artefacts and this has rekindled my interest. Also a colleague gave me two boxes of scrapbook stuff she no longer wanted, and you know me, I couldn't say no to free stuff. While sifting through historical papers I found old paperwork relating to people I already had pages about. It has been so interesting matching those belongings to these familiar people. For example, I had a page about my great-grandfather, Jack, and his farm tenancy agreement from 1937 turned up in one of the shoe boxes so I slotted it in.

My dad was from a farming family and they did not stray far geographically so I recognised most photographic images: the houses, farm yards, churches, and events that we still traditionally hold now.

I already had pages of my Grandparents but I found some more of their wedding photos, pictures of my Nan and her sister as farm girls and a lot of pictures of women wearing stout shoes on days out. Luckily, I knew who most of them were. 

My Grandad was the only son of his father who was one of nine so it appears he was the executor on a lot of his aunts and Uncles wills. I guess his two sisters didn't hold that post in the 1930's. Reading all of the probate notices was interesting. It turns out two of the pieces of furniture I have in our house are listed in probate from the early 1900's: an oak chest and our dining room table. Both of these I had from my dad when he moved into a bungalow and didn't have room for them. The probate notice above is from my four times great grandfather from 1862. It has a wax seal. Amazing.

There were postcards, certificates of educational achievement, death certificates, Victorian school books in wonderful script handwriting and so much more. I slotted them into pages I already had of the person they belonged to.

There were certificates of monetary gifts to the WW1 effort from my great, great Uncle who emigrated to Canada, my Nan's WI calendars of events, her driving licenses, my grandfathers Young Farmers Club meeting cards, ration books, notices to families on what to do with evacuees...

...wedding invitations and gift cards, coronation memorabilia, mine and my dad's school reports, notes of currency from around the world: the list is endless. I didn't want them to just remain in shoe boxes forever so I have filed them all away in little pockets on my existing pages.

It was such a satisfying way to spend the last days of summer. I have been on my very own episode of 'Who do you think you are?' 
I do love that program.

If you have always wanted to catalogue your family history I was told the best way to start is to have a shoe box marked 'family' and then collect everything in one place - it has certainly worked for me and it appears generations of my family.

Thanks for reading. Do you hold important family information?
Jo xx