Documenting Your Life with ADB Designs!

Question/Prompt #9 - Documenting Your Life with Diane, ADB Designs

This is your story.  Do it YOUR way.  I write in my journal and scrap pages inspired by my journal entries. Two of my CT journal directly on their scrapbook pages and don't keep a separate paper journal. Others keep only a paper or computer journal and are waiting to create the scrapbook pages at a later date. There is no wrong way to do this, just pick up pen or mouse and DO IT. You can join me at any time with this series. You can scrap just the questions/prompts that inspire you, or all of them. You can scrap from the current question and go forward, or you can start at question 1 and move through them in order. 

Each post (every other week) I will share the current question/prompt and layouts created by myself, my creative team or scrapbooking friends.  

Note about sharing layouts from Cole:

We would LOVE for you to share YOUR layout's with us! Just create a 600x600 px jpg layout and email it to Cole npeak@storyrock.com subject line D.Y.L Layout!   With your permission, I will post it to the MyMemories BLOG DYL Series (right here), Instagram, Pinterest & Twitter.  Along with your layout, please do include the question/prompt number and the name of the My Memories designer(s) and the name of their product(s) you used.  If you would like to post it directly to our MyMemories Facebook wall please click HERE. You can also post your layouts in the MyMemories Forum HERE.

We are going to return to writing more about our parents this week and if you include dates and places in your narrative, and I hope you do, please be as specific and detailed as you can be. For example: “When we lived in Emporia, Lyon County, Kansas from 1957 until 1968, and the family attended the First United Methodist Church...” 

This week is more about reflection, consideration, and perhaps speculation. Remember this is your story, from your point of view; it is not right or wrong, it is your perspective.

Write about your parent’s values, philosophies, and religious beliefs. How did those beliefs inform your childhood and your choices in adulthood? Were your parents in agreement? Did they share the same religious beliefs?

I shared this question in my newsletter and received this thoughtful comment:

Got your newsletter today, with question # 9. As you already know, I've been working on my family history for years. But there are some subjects that are really difficult to write about. Several members of my family have written about family history, but there is one subject none of us has ever touched.  What I'm wondering is-- could you ask people who are participating in this project if their families have any hot buttons- hot potatoes- or whatever they call their touchy issues...

A dear friend and family historian provided this response to the question:

Once you get started on family history research, most people will find some kind of skeletons in the closet. I'm one who thinks these are the facts of life and should be public knowledge for the family. That family will often extend out a lot farther than our own limited circle of parents-grandparents-first cousins-aunts and uncles. You will certainly find illegitimate births (nowadays, it seems, no big deal), affairs of the heart and otherwise, imprisonments, etc. If anyone has been watching "Who Do You Think You Are" you will have seen Jesse Ferguson's journey to acceptance of the truth about his great-grandfather, sort of a con-man. I think we all have to come to that point of acceptance of our ancestors being as they were, not as we wish or imagine. And we aren't them, we don't have to make their mistakes. Heaven knows we all make our own share of mistakes along the way. They make us individuals, flawed, but unique and interesting all.

Sharing our stories with others often helps us come to terms with our histories, and that's a good thing. Within our digiscrap community, we support each other through these kind of layouts. They may not be what you'd post on Facebook, though I've seen young people over-sharing their own lives and mistakes on that venue. Everyone has to decide for themselves how much to share with strangers, acquaintances, and friends. That decision will be personal. In general, I feel family history over 100 years old is removed enough from our own lives for it to be made public.

How do YOU handle the difficult subjects?

Here is a layout with a sense of humor, on an issue of an ancestors misdeeds: