Capturing Memories

I've tried to get family members to write about their memories without much success. However, I have noticed over the last few months, several relatives have written in emails, Facebook posts or blog comments about their memories of another family member or an occasion. I’ve been trying to come up with a way to capture those fleeting tidbits so I can easily access  them when writing about family history.

I’ve decided to use a word processing document in which I can record the following information:

1. Family member or event remembered
2. Name of individual who made the comment
3. Date
4. Actual text of comment (copy and paste)
5. Copy of photograph or other related documentation

Each time I come across a memory I can easily add it to the document. This should make it much easier to find those comments than trying to search through Facebook posts or email accounts.

If you have any suggestions about how to capture these kinds of memories, I invite you to share them in the comments section below.

Public domain image, via Wikimedia Commons.

© 2013 Denise Spurlock, Ancestral Trees Research