Preserving Our History

Over the past few days the destructive fire are the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris has been much in the news, and the courage shown by firefighters, police and the general public in saving so many of the treasures inside has been widely reported.  The loss of such a historic landmark is tragic, especially considering it survived the French Revolution, both world wars and numerous other natural and man-made disasters.  It prompts me to consider, on the smaller and more personal scale, the preservation of my own family treasures.  While I have electronic backups of my data in place, what about the family treasures, paintings and ephemera, stories and general knowledge?  What can I do to preserve it all?

Firstly, over the next few weeks I plan to give the camera a workout and photograph all the family items I have in my possession.  Things like the figurines that belonged to my grandparents and great grandparents, the painting my father was given when he retired, and the little shell turtles I gave my grandmother after my first solo holiday when I was 17.  Treasures that I cannot copy but should disaster strike I would at least have photos of the items to keep.

Secondly, I need to write down the stories of each item.  I've written before about cleaning out the family home after the deaths of my parents, and how my sister and I simply did not keep things we didn't know the story of.  So many items we looked at with no idea of whether they were family heirlooms or trinkets our mother had purchased from the local opp shop, and several times we found ourselves wishing so much that our parents were still with us so we could ask all the questions the items we found created for us.  Why had this china cup been kept?  Whose was it and how long had it been in the family?  There were so many bits and pieces put away that we had no idea of the history of, and so generally didn't keep.  If my sister and I didn't know, there was no one left to ask.

I have spent months digitising photos, letters, diaries and even a few journals, like the ones my mother kept of long ago holidays.  My sister has created a wonderful little recipe book made of all the dishes our mother and grandmother used to make, with notes of why each dish was special.  Now it is time to do the same for more physical items - to photograph them and record their stories.  Because if no one in my family knows the story behind Great Aunt Mary's tea set - or even that the tea set in the shed was Great Aunt Mary's and not something picked up on a whim at a jumble sale - then they will have no reason to keep it, value it, and ultimately pass it on to another generation.  And that would be a sad loss of my family history.