Preserving Family History

Preserving Family History

There is a lot of value in grandparents! Knowing your family history and passing it along to younger generations is important to most families. Preserving your family history and passing along the stories builds bridges between the future and the past. Keeping those memories alive can be challenging. Take the opportunity to pass along the history, traditions, and stories pertinent to your family.

Here are some ideas and activities to prompt conversations and deepen your family connections:

Record their history

  • Dig out the old photo albums. Find those that include family gatherings with multiple generations. Ask the elders to recall their memories of their childhood. Find out the places they lived. Did they have any military experience? What did they do for work? Be sure to record the discussion! Set-up a family YouTube channel and store your family videos. These can be private and accessible only to the family, if you want. Check out these tips to recording your family history.

Holiday meals

  • Schedule a family dinner, complete with the traditional recipes and activities. It doesn’t matter if it’s not a holiday! Many families in Texas gather to make traditional foods for their families. Talk about why your family does certain things at the holidays or to mark occasions—how did that get started?

The recipe box

  • Many of us have favorite recipes we save online. Odds are your grandmother and great-grandmother had a recipe box full of amazing things. It’s a fun time to review those as a family, seeing her handwritten notes, identifying the secret ingredient, or seeing how food accessibility and ingredients have changed. The 1950s and 1960s brought cooks many new ingredients that we take for granted today.

Research your ancestry

  • Many online sites like Ancestry.com give insight into how small the world really is, and how interconnected we are. If genealogy is of interest, dig into it with your elderly family member. He or she may be able to add connections to aunts, uncles, and cousins, and you’ll all learn more about your ancestors.

Take pictures

  • Seniors may shy away from having their photo taken. Encourage them to be part of group family photos. Be sure to include them in pictures with the grandchildren or great-grandchildren. Years from now, those photos will help the younger generation recall memories and time spent together.

Preserving your family history can help keep the stories alive. Sharing the time together by doing one of the above activities builds relationships. Love is fortified and relationships transcend generations. Home is the heart of that love. At BeeHive Home Care, we understand that seniors want to remain at home, aging in place for as long as possible. It allows those family moments to continue uninterrupted. For senior adults who need some help at home, our caregivers work to keep the house tidy, help with meal preparation or medication management, things to keep the elderly family member safe and happy in the own home.

If we can help your family, let us know. We serve families across Texas and believe in helping you preserve memories of your loved one.

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