Life distills down to 2 boxes. Well that seems to be my experience anyway. For those that have seen the George Clooney movie “Up in the Air” it also basically lines up with his Empty Backpack Theory. Recently I have had to pack up the lives of elderly loved ones because they have passed away or moved into Aged Care. Literally anything of worth in their entire unit or house fits into two removalists boxes or less. What is keep is material precious possessions such as memorabilia, photo albums and old documents such as passports, birth certificates and drivers licences. Everything else, the furniture, cars and other materialistic possessions are disposed of or distributed to siblings or relatives. Sadly the reality is that photos get relegated to the attic of the sibling(s)/relatives and family stories are lost.
Now this is something that surprises me in these times as my current generation has access to tools to ensure that family photos and stories are maintained and readily accessible into perpetuity (at least for quite a while anyway). These loved ones have left a legacy in terms of photos and stories and it is now up to the Web 2.0 generation to continue these stories. This is particularly important since the elderly these days have lived through a lot. The older generation have lived through different worlds with the Depression, two World Wars and periods of major upheaval in the world.
My grandfather, Jack Vercoe, passed away in 2010. He lived a significant life, spent most of his working life in the Australian Airforce actually and in his twilight years had written memoirs. I took it upon myself to ensure his memoirs were perpetuated by publishing them online in a WordPress Blog. See http://jackvercoe.com
Now WordPress.com is free to establish and publish a blog as I have done in the case of my grandfather and his memoirs. If you think about it his stories and photos are now available widely published, to the world actually, for the cost of a domain name (<$20/year). There was a bit of work behind transferring my grandfathers memoirs and publishing them online however that pales into insignificance when you think that family history and genealogy has been maintained. His memoirs could very easily be sitting in a box right now in storage.
My father-in-law, Bob Rodger, is another example. Actually he is still at his family home and is mobile so you could say I being proactive documenting his stories online at this time! See http://bobrodger.com.au Bob is another example of someone who has led a significant life and in his retiring years has produced a number of books on his family history. These books deserve to be published online and be available to the broader audience. Again WordPress was chosen as a free option to achieve this.
Is this something that we should take responsibility for? Perpetuating our family history and genealogy via online Web 2.0 tools? Something to think about.