Many situations come up in marriages that stem from you or your spouse's past. It may be the style of parenting that was used by either of your parents. It may be the absence of one or both parents physically, emotionally or otherwise. It is important to know about each other's past in order to better understand each other and give grace to each other in times of misunderstanding.
Another aspect of knowing your family history is to look back and see what important things have happened or what important people may have formed part of you or your spouse's lineage. Do a little investigation into your family trees. Make it a couple project that the two of you work on together. Ask your parents, uncles, aunts, cousins, grandparents or even great-grandparents if they're still around.
If it's not appropriate timing for whatever reason to delve into the past then begin with yourselves. Write out important dates and events in your own lives and go forward from there. It can be a gift to future generations or to other family members when you pass into eternity.
Make it fun to know your family history or to build a new history. If you're the creative type then you can choose to design your own history book. While browsing around on Amazon I saw a few books that I thought might be helpful.
To Our Children's Children: Preserving Family Histories for Generations to Come is step-by-step guide to creating histories from the memories of older people.
Family Tree Legacies: Preserving Memories Throughout Time helps you keep track of basic information and special memories, important dates etc. There are fill-in pages to record all your essential family information. It is in a binder format so that you can grow your own family tree by using the included CD to print out new copies of the book's fill-in pages.
Our Family Tree - A Keepsake Book is divided into 28 sections to help you document family ancestry and traditions. The sections include: The Story Begins, Your family's earliest ancestors, Family Recipes and Your family's special dishes and favorite treats. There are designated spaces for family photos and a 14x20-inch family tree poster to summarize your ancestry and comes with a linen cover so that it can be displayed attractively.
Scrapbooking Your Family History is a colorful volume with techniques for preserving precious ancestral memories through scrapbooking. Use those vintage photos, uncovered documents, and newly-found family stories to create scrapbooked family trees and pedigree charts, depictions of holidays and family reunions through the years, and histories of family homesteads. Inscribe notes on ancestors’ occupations and hobbies etc. and there are also techniques for displaying the scrapbooked material in shadow boxes and frames.
Those are just a few of what I saw. Click on any of the links to get more information on them or to see if there are any others that appeal to you. Give it a try and see what surprises you discover in you or your spouse's family tree.
To Our Children's Children: Preserving Family Histories for Generations to Come is step-by-step guide to creating histories from the memories of older people.
Family Tree Legacies: Preserving Memories Throughout Time helps you keep track of basic information and special memories, important dates etc. There are fill-in pages to record all your essential family information. It is in a binder format so that you can grow your own family tree by using the included CD to print out new copies of the book's fill-in pages.
Our Family Tree - A Keepsake Book is divided into 28 sections to help you document family ancestry and traditions. The sections include: The Story Begins, Your family's earliest ancestors, Family Recipes and Your family's special dishes and favorite treats. There are designated spaces for family photos and a 14x20-inch family tree poster to summarize your ancestry and comes with a linen cover so that it can be displayed attractively.
Scrapbooking Your Family History is a colorful volume with techniques for preserving precious ancestral memories through scrapbooking. Use those vintage photos, uncovered documents, and newly-found family stories to create scrapbooked family trees and pedigree charts, depictions of holidays and family reunions through the years, and histories of family homesteads. Inscribe notes on ancestors’ occupations and hobbies etc. and there are also techniques for displaying the scrapbooked material in shadow boxes and frames.
Those are just a few of what I saw. Click on any of the links to get more information on them or to see if there are any others that appeal to you. Give it a try and see what surprises you discover in you or your spouse's family tree.