This is what I wrote in my journal on March 9, 2010…
Last night, I was reading some of my journal entries from when I was 14. They are pretty hilarious. I was so crazy back then. I am glad that I wrote pretty regularly.
I think that sometimes we disregard record keeping and think that it is not very important. President Spencer W. Kimball taught a lot about journals and this is a quote of his that I like:
“Any Latter-day Saint family that has searched genealogical and historical records has fervently wished its ancestors had kept better and more complete records. On the other hand, some families possess some spiritual treasures because ancestors have recorded the events surrounding their conversion to the gospel and other happenings of interest, including many miraculous blessings and spiritual experiences. People often use the excuse that their lives are uneventful and nobody would be interested in what they have done. But I promise you that if you will keep your journals and records, they will indeed be a source of great inspiration to your families, to your children, your grandchildren, and others, on through the generations. Each of us is important to those who are near and dear to us—and as our posterity read of our life’s experiences, they, too, will come to know and love us. And in that glorious day when our families are together in the eternities, we will already be acquainted.”
I’m not perfect at this by any means, but ever since my Grandma Marchant’s funeral, I have felt inspired to be better at record keeping.
My grandma Marchant passed away in January 2010 and her funeral ended up being a turning point for me that I can see even more clearly now almost 10 years later.
My grandma was very involved in family history, especially during her later years. She compiled several family history books and we owe a lot to her for that. I have definitely come to appreciate her hard work and sacrifice of time more and more throughout the years as I have become more interested in family history myself.
During her funeral, I had the distinct impression that I wanted to be better at record keeping and that I could carry on her legacy in that way.
I started keeping a journal when I was a young teenager but beyond that, I hadn’t really done very much in terms of family history. That thought during my grandma’s funeral motivated me to become more passionate about record keeping.
A few weeks after her funeral, I got right to work and ended up working on and completing several family history projects that year. And that was just the beginning. I’ve done several more over the past 10 years. I’ll probably share some more in the future, but I thought I’d just start with sharing what I did in 2010:
I compiled a scrapbook for my mom with her childhood photos, I compiled a book that contains the story from when Jershon and I met until when we got married, I created a book (with help from my siblings) of Little Brown Bear Stories (stories that my Grandpa Hall used to make up and tell us all the time), I compiled a book of childhood memories and photos as a Christmas present for my parents, and I started compiling my personal history (which took me an entire year to compile, so I finished it in late 2011).
Here are the details…
A scrapbook for my mom with her childhood photos:
I got all of my mom’s childhood photos from my grandma Hall, scanned them all in, printed my own copies, and put them into a scrapbook. I also asked my grandma to record some memories that she had of my mom. She recorded those on a cassette which I transcribed and put into the scrapbook. My grandma passed away in March 2018 so it’s especially meaningful now that we have an audio recording of her telling memories of my mom.
This project had never even crossed my mind until about a month after my grandma Marchant’s funeral. But it ended up being perfect timing because a few months after I completed it, we moved to Iowa for 5 years and it would have been much harder to get the photos, fabric, and memories from my grandma after moving away (since she only lived about 20 minutes away from us at the time).
A book that contains the story from when Jershon and I met until when we got married:
I’m so glad that I compiled this when I did. We had only been married for about 18 months by this point so I was able to remember a lot more of the details from our dating days than I would be able to now, 10 years later. We read through parts of this every year, especially in the summer, to remember our dating story.
I included my journal entries, Jershon’s journal entries, our e-mails back and forth, e-mails between my roommates and I (that talked about my feelings about Jershon/marriage), notes that we wrote each other (I scanned these in to get our actual handwriting), lots of pictures, the list of our wedding presents (and who they were from), some marriage advice that people gave us (written in the cards) etc.
A book with Little Brown Bear Stories:
When my Grandpa Hall was alive, he used to tell us “Little Brown Bear” stories. He made them up but they always involved the same things – Little Brown Bear, Little Blue Fairy, the doll house, riding horses etc. He would put our names into the story so that we were a part of it. We always loved sitting on Grandpa’s lap and listening to him tell Little Brown Bear stories.
A long time ago, he recorded some on cassettes for each of the families. Sadly, in the middle of the story about me, my little sister Jenna (she was really young at the time) recorded over it. But there are still stories about my siblings on the cassette and they were all similar anyway.
I had the idea to transcribe the cassette, type up the stories, and turn them into a picture book. The illustrations were done by me, Jershon, my mom, and my siblings (Jenna, Eric and Ann-Marie).
My kids love to read this book and I love that I get to pass grandpa Hall’s Little Brown Bear stories onto them.
A book of childhood memories and photos:
I gave this to my parents for Christmas. It is a book of memories/traditions/pictures/journal entries/random things from when my siblings and I were growing up.
It was difficult to get all 7 of my siblings to participate in this so the text portion was just contributed by me and my sisters. I also scanned in a bunch of things that my other siblings had done.
I started compiling my personal history (which took me an entire year to compile, so I finished it in late 2011):
This book covers my life from when my mom was pregnant with me until after I got married and had 1 1/2 kids. The after marriage part is not complete in any way because I wanted to have this particular personal history focus more on my childhood. I am planning to compile volume two of my personal history (which will cover years 2009-2020) and have it completed by 2021. Then volume 3 will be completed by 2031… etc.
I decided to organize it by subject (Prenatal/Birth, Home, Family, Holidays, Faith, Education, Employment, Friends, Pets, Variety, and Courtship).
Within each section, it has memories, questions/answers, and journal entries, pictures, etc.
I also didn’t include a complete courtship story since I already compiled and published an entire book on our dating story.
This is what I wrote in the introduction:
I compiled this personal history for many reasons. I really enjoy doing projects like this and I think that this will be fun to read/look at as I get older. I hope that my posterity enjoys seeing these “puzzle pieces” of my life and piecing me together in their own minds.
I have gone back and forth a million times about how to organize this book and what to include. I don’t think that I will ever feel like it is all the way complete. I still feel like so much is missing. I plan to put together more personal histories throughout my life as well as other types of family history books.
I realize that this may seem like a different style for a personal history (since I feel like most people write them when they are old), but I think that looking at my life in this unique way can be valuable. I wanted to include as much information as possible but because of time and page limitation, this is what you get.
To explain the title a bit… Jershon helped me come up with it. He asked me what thing I would use to describe/sum up my life. I told him that it would probably be a house. I have always liked playing house, looking at houses, decorating houses, etc. and now I enjoy making our house a home and everything that goes along with that.
The mullet part is just a little mystery that you will have to read this book to discover…
When I look back on all that I was able to accomplish in one year, I’m amazed. Of course it helped that I only had one really young child at the time so I was able to get a lot done during his naps. I’m really glad that I put in the time and work to make these things happen. I’ve already appreciated them a lot over the past 9 years, but I’m sure that I (and my posterity) will appreciate them even more as time goes on.
