(C)2000 by
Michael R. Boyter
Fire! Fire! Fire!
In a frantic minute you grab the kids and get a safe distance from your
house. There you witness your home, and everything in it, burning to the
ground. It's a total loss.
A disaster of any kind is not ever a pleasant experience, but at least
there is insurance to build again and to buy new furniture. But let's
talk about what is not insured. Things that once lost, are gone for
ever!
I'm referring to your family keepsakes. Your home videos, family photos,
journals, diaries and other priceless family treasures. Losing any of
these things is a terrible tragedy!
Video of your baby's first steps...Gone!
All your wedding pictures...Gone!
Your diary you wrote as a teenager...Gone!
What if you had to evacuate your house and only had minutes or less
to get out?
As I pondered this, I realized that it would be next to impossible, in a
short amount of time, for me to get all of these things out of the house
and to a safe location.
Why? Because I had 8mm tapes all through the house. My old journals were
stuck in a box somewhere in the garage. Some photo albums were up in
closets while others I looked and looked for but couldn't find for
awhile. I had no idea where they were. I had to go looking for them.
In a disaster situation, there is no time to go "looking".
Here's some of the preventative measures that I took in order to keep
myself from such a situation. Use these ideas and tips to ensure that
your family memories are preserved for generations to come!
Family Photo Albums
Share them as gifts often – Pictures of the family are
great gifts to give to grandparents and other family members. If you
lose yours, you always have a way to regain copies.
Online photo storage – My wife and I have put many of our
pictures on a free, safe and secure family web site. There are many
of these but I personally like MyFamily.com
Build your site in minutes and you don't need to know a thing
about making a web page. Your pictures are stored remotely and
something like a house fire couldn't touch them.
One central location - Designate a location for all your
photo albums and don't deviate. By putting them in a box and in one
location in your house, you increase your chances of being able to
get out quickly with all your pictures.
Home Videos
Duplicate them - Makes copies and get them to other
members of the family. This makes for a great gift.
What works for me is to simply connect my video camera to my VCR. I
then push play on my video camera and press record on my VCR. This isn't
the fanciest way of tape duplication but it works and my parents have
loved getting videos of the grandkids.
Journals, Diaries, and Personal Histories
Personal histories of your own or those of an ancestors are one of the
most valuable items in your possession. If kept protected, they will be
treasured for generations to come.
Duplicate & Distribute - My grandma gave me a copy of my
late grandpa's life story. I typed it up and printed multiple copies
for all of my cousins and aunts and uncles. They loved it and we
took steps to make sure grandpa's life story will live on in the
hearts and minds of his posterity.
Diary Safeguards - If you are currently writing a journal
or diary I realize that some of it may be personal and you may not
wish for it to be distributed out at this time.
If you write your journal by hand, take your journal in and photo
copy any part that you plan to pass on to your children someday! Don't
wait! You may then look into putting a copy into a safe deposit box.
Just as long as it is out of your house.
If you write your journal with the aid of a computer, I recommend
storing copies often to any one of the many free online storage web
sites. Nobody will be able to access your data but you. Some of these
sites are XDrive.com and IDrive.com
So, in Conclusion...
Rule #1 in any of this is to duplicate your family keepsake items and
store them in multiple locations. This is the only way to ensure that if
disaster strikes, you will be able to easily recover those priceless
family mementos that define you as an individual and as a family!
Michael R. Boyter is the author of the popular EBook "MemoryGrabber".
A fill-in-the-blanks workbook full of prompts, lists and activities to
create your own Biography! Subscribe to our
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