Memorials take many forms. There is a growing trend to create online memorials for family members who have passed away. I was reminded of this when I received a somewhat confusing email a few moments ago.
Today, many of us live our lives online. We write blogs and journals, create audio content, and post photographs of subjects that are important to us. We share these little pieces of ourselves through social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, or Google +. This content will remain online after we have passed on, (unless someone actively removes it).
Traditionally, genealogists would attempt to find an old newspaper if they were searching for an obituary of an ancestor. Today, many of those old, fragile, yellowing pieces of newsprint can be found online, in a digital (and more permanent), format. Go through the old boxes in a relative’s attic or basement, and you might uncover clippings of obituaries of family members. You could find sympathy cards, funeral cards, or photos of some of the flowers that were at the funeral.
These tangible heirlooms can tell genealogists many things. There may be clues of how that person was related to other relatives in your family tree. You might find information that can lead you to the cemetery your relative was buried in.
Today, we do nearly everything online that once was not done online. People post everything from photos of what they had for lunch, to rants about their bad day at work, to updates about what they are doing creatively or academically. You probably go to a newspaper’s website instead of picking up an actual paper. The obituaries located inside the newspapers can also be found online.
A little while ago, I got an email from out of the blue. It was from a company called Legacy.com. It informed me that the Memorial Website for a particular person was no longer online, and suggested that perhaps I would like to sponsor that website, and restore it. I was told that the email was sent to me because I had contributed information to this particular online Memorial.
At first, I was confused, and did not recognize the name of the person listed in this email. Then, it hit me. I remembered writing a “virtual sympathy card” type of comment on the website of a local newspaper where an obituary was located. It was the obituary of a friend of the family that I had only met once, and that was why I didn’t immediately recognize the name in the email. Now, I feel sad all over again for the family of the person who passed away.
Image by Dyanna Hyde on Flickr