Who Will Watch the Home Place? Preserving Your Family Legacy

About a year ago, my grandson Alex loaded a bunch of new music on the little iPod I use at the gym.  I was working away on the elliptical machine one evening and suddenly in a pretty country voice, I heard the following words:

“Who will watch the home place?

Who will tend my heart’s dear space?

Who will come to fill my place, when I am gone from here?”

{ Listen to the whole song here }

I was moved to tears! Totally lost it. Right there in the middle of the gym surrounded by strangers.

I have been thinking about this in the back of my mind ever since.  And every time I hear the haunting lyrics, they continue to stir my soul.

I thought this was worth discussion.  Each family has a story.  Each family has a unique path and set of struggles and successes that have made the family legacy and produced the children and grandchildren who are living today.

Some families have ancestors that came west by wagon train.  Others have relatives that came to the US via Ellis Island.  Some have ancestry that dates back to the native tribes who first conquered the land and survived with much less.  Some survived the Great Dust Bowl starvation period or the Great Depression and the Stock Market Crash of 1929.  Maybe they survived World War II or Hitler’s Concentration Camps.

Who is responsible to gather and preserve these stories?  The children and the grandchildren must do it. If they do not, the majority of the small stories will one day be lost forever.

Documenting family history has been done twice so far in my family.  My nephew, Joel, several years ago wrote a book about the ministry work of my Uncle Fred and also my father and mother in their early years.  It is a treasure on my bookshelf that I have read several times.

Writing by JKim1 via www.sitawit.wordpress.com

My niece, Lynda also did a similar thing when her dad was lingering in the hospital several months before he died. Wayne and my sister Esther had a marvelous life in the ministry, starting churches from nothing and quietly accomplishing amazing things.

Lynda and I talked about the importance of knowing Wayne’s thoughts and memories and recording them.  She totally took on the project. Over months of daily hospital visits, she asked a ton of questions and video-recorded his responses. We all have a copy of what was recorded.  Some day there may be another book, but at least, prior to his passing in May, the precious information was gathered.

Perhaps you have thought about this, too. Your family is losing its older generation as we all are. There are ways to capture your family history if you feel the call to be the one to make it happen.

Here are some ideas that might get you started:

1. Email all of your relatives and try to get interest in a family reunion.
2. If you get the reunion in place, send out a questionnaire, asking each person to write the memories and facts they are aware of. Some may produce dates and places of births and deaths you didn’t know about. Have them bring that to the reunion.
3. At the reunion, set up a place and time to video family members and “interview” them, with a list of open-ended questions that allow for rambling and opinion.  You’ll get lots of wonderful information about your family.
4. Either pay to have the videos transcribed, or personally do it.
5. Make a list of the older members of your family who best know the stories of your roots and ancestry.
6. Contact them for more in-depth discussions.
7. If you have older relatives who are not well, consider making a trip to them. Let them know you will be asking them to reminisce as you record or make notes of  the conversations.
8. Consider putting the results into book form.  If you cannot do so yourself, seek out the writer in your family and ask if they will help with the project.

Photo Credit: www.theperfectmistake.tumblr.com

Will you become rich and famous?  Probably not.  But what you will do is huge.  You will protect for future generations the legacy of your very own family.  The treasured memories in your heart can be preserved for YOUR children and THEIR children.  And all because someone took the time and effort to be certain they would know.

What if you can only think of your heritage with pain? What if all your ancestors were pirates, rag-tags, or harmed the innocent, if you know what I mean? Then what?  Remember Oprah’s roots?  Telling even the un-tellable can still help your family find the strength to rise above and change history.

If you consider your heritage important, you will convey that to your children.  If you do something like this, you will never have the worry of “Who will watch the home place?”

What you invest into will be valuable, in your eyes and in the eyes of those who follow, … when you are gone from here.

Have I inspired you?

What is a special memory or story of your ancestors that you would not want to be forgotten by your children?