After a senior person leaves this world for a better place there comes a moment when the relatives start arranging his belongings. The shabby clothes is usually thrown away, some people who are interested in antique items collecting may take his utensils and furniture.
The jewelry is generally shared between the closest relatives. But there still remain the things that nobody needs but it’s hard to throw them away. They are the old letters and pale black-and-white photos. The dressed up people are posing in front of the ancient buildings, the young grandmothers are smiling tender from the yellow pictures of the past days. Somebody is sitting at the table, an unknown mother is smiling at her baby. But none of these photos is signed and it seems to be impossible to find out who are the people looking from the old pictures. Some families store all that stuff in bags and boxes another just get rid of it. Once I even participated in a sad ceremony of burning the old photos down. Usually the relatives take a couple of photos, put them in the boxes or drawers and forget about them for a year or two. But there is point in organizing your personal family archive in order to make your children and grandchildren acquainted with the history of your stem.
- The first and probably the most simple variant is to create a family album. Let us be honest and assume the fact that not all the photos have any historic value. Try to sort out those photos which depict some significant event for your family. That maybe the first photo of your grandpa with his pony or the ceremony of awarding your granny. Keep the photos where the people wear military uniform.
- Another interesting way is to arrange the photos in the way reminding of a tree and explain to your children the family bounds.
- A cozy quiet corner with family photos hanging on the wall will always attract your guests and be a good topic to break the ice and start a conversation.
