Today I went out to run a few errands and I saw Valentine’s Day merchandise everywhere. I saw lots of pink, red, hearts, flowers, and chocolates galore. I am not sure if I had just passed by the stuff for weeks without noticing it, but today there was no way not to notice it because it was everywhere. Of course, since this is the genealogy blog, I mention all of this only because it caused me to think about the great love stories in all of our family histories that could someday be forgotten if they are not preserved.
In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that I am a hopeless romantic. Oh, and my favorite movie in the whole world is The Notebook. Needless to say, I enjoy love stories and I wonder about what great love stories there are in the branches of my family tree. A wonderful way for me to find out would be to ask around. I can ask my parents and other relatives about their relationship stories and I can also ask them whether they know about the love stories of my grandparents. There may even be family artifacts such as letters, cards or diaries that could add to my knowledge of my family’s romantic past.
What would I do with all of this information? I would use it to write a family history book, of course. There are many potential topics for writing your family’s history, and since I am so in love with love, that would be a fitting angle for me to approach it from. My book would begin in the present, and go back through the years. Perhaps some day my son will enjoy reading about the law student that went out on a snowboarding date with a handsome fellow that worked in the snack bar at the law school. He’ll enjoy it until he realizes that the people in the story are his mom and dad, and then he just might roll his eyes, say “Eew!”, or otherwise express the “disgust” that kids love to express when they see their mom and dad steal a kiss. What love stories will you find in your family’s past and present that you can preserve for future generations?