Genealogists may know a lot about their ancestors. There are many ways to collect facts about when that person lived, or died, or got married. It’s not as easy to discover interesting stories about that person’s life, or how your relative touched the lives of others. Unless, of course, someone has created a digital memorial for that person. This is a growing trend.
Traditionally, if you want to know more about a particular ancestor’s or relative’s life, you would attempt to locate certain types of sources. You can learn a lot about a person from reading his or her obituary. Many obituaries include one or two noteworthy stories about something that person accomplished. Perhaps your relative was the first person in the family to graduate from college. Maybe her loved ones remember her for her laugh, that always brought a smile to everyone’s face. Chances are, someone thoughtfully added these types of stories into the person’s obituary.
Some genealogists are lucky enough to be able to track down a diary or journal that was written by an ancestor. This is another great way to learn more about what your ancestor’s day to day life was like, what he thought about, and what made him or her happy. Or, you might have a box of old letters that were written by your ancestor, and sent to someone that he or she loved. There should be lots of interesting stories in those kinds of letters!
Today, though, few people use paper and pen to create letters and diaries. People write blogs about their lives, and put them online for all to see. We send email to our loved ones, make comments on their Facebook wall, and reply to them through Twitter. People spend a great deal of their lives online, and this has become a common way to connect to other people.
Perhaps it is only natural that people have started to memorialize their loved ones online. Right now, if a person is on Facebook, and that person dies, it is difficult to get Facebook to delete their page. Some people intentionally leave that page there, in memory of their relative. Others create a group page on Facebook that is dedicated to the memory of that relative.
The group pages can be accessed by everyone who is on Facebook, (and who the page owner accepts into the group). I have a friend who passed away not long ago, and there was a Facebook page created in memory of him. People go to the Facebook memorial page, and leave comments, memories, and wishes about this person. These types of memorials can be added to, forever, by whomever feels inspired to do so. Future generations could, potentially, access the page and learn quite a lot about their ancestor.
Another way to create an online memorial for your relative is to use a website called 1000 Memories. It is free to use, and the information people place in it will be saved forever, so that future generations can access it.
You need to become a member of 1000 Memories in order to use it. After that you can create an online memorial for your mother, great grandmother, or anyone else in your family. Not sure if someone has already created one for your relative? There is a handy search engine you can use to check that out.
Image by John Ward on Flickr