Creating the Family History of the Future

Years ago we began a tradition in our family. Between Christmas and New Year I gather all the images and videos from each of the devices in the house and produce a family video that all gather to watch as part of our New Year’s Eve activities. It was never intended to be part of the family record but as we look back at these productions they have become an obvious source of remembering things and a happy accident of family history.

I just completed this year’s video and it tallies more than 50-minutes. I won’t burden you with the whole thing but will share this portion of the video that celebrates the birth of a new grandson and the impact these boys have been on my family this past year:

We customarily start these videos with a brief pictorial overview of the world — we will grab images from news sources and create a backdrop of what was going on in the world while we went through the events of our year. I think this is important for putting some things in context down the road. Then we get into the major events and activities of the year. It might include travel and vacations but many years, like this past year, we can’t do those kinds of things because of other events.

It doesn’t matter what happens.

What matters is that we tell the big stories. This year the stories were of losing my mother, celebrating the graduation of a daughter from high school, welcoming a new grandson and making a move — a huge year and a big story to tell. While I do “narrate” at parts this video is more about my children and their part in it all and I try to use as much of “their stuff” as I can.

My kids are all Millennials — they have grown up with the Internet and screens and devices and they are fluent in the savvy uses of video and images. They take thousands of images. Our videos are primarily their pictures and in the case of this video above I’m particularly proud of their technical work because the very best pictures of my grandsons have been taken by my children, not by me.

It’s now been 8 years since we began this tradition and our videos have become better over time. They aren’t intended for a general audience because frequently they include references to family culture or even inside jokes that would just take too long to understand. And, to be honest, we have pictures that include Christmas morning hair and every day chaos that my wife and children would rather not the world at large see. Later generations of family seeing this stuff after we’re gone is ok, I suppose.

But none of this is lost on me. These slideshows are part of the family history we will pass down. It is a tradition in keeping family records that many would enjoy if they would invest the time. It takes me the better part of a day to produce these videos. I consider it now sacred time.

The Spirit of Receiving

As my Dad has labored this past year on the history of his Mother, Maurine R. Westover, I have been sitting on this video just waiting to share it now — at Christmastime. Many of you have seen these before and may, in fact, have it in your possession. But many others have not seen it. It is as timely now as when Grandma recorded it 29 years ago.

As I understand the story, even though she was very ill at this time (and I think the video makes this somewhat apparent), Grandma was asked to give the main talk in Church the Sunday before Christmas. Of course, she was in no condition to be there but Dad would video tape her message and they would playback the video for her ward during the meeting.

Watching this video brings a variety of emotions to me. Seeing Grandma, no matter her age, brings back a flood of memories. Hearing her voice and seeing her in her home always makes me remember times from my childhood. But there are other elements in this video that get to me now. The afghan in her lap was made by my mother. I’d know her work anywhere. The chair grandma is sitting in, the way she and Grandpa would decorate the Christmas tree — it all comes back even though the image is simple.

But best of all is the message of Christmas. It was never really elaborate at Grandma and Grandpa’s for Christmas. But I loved it there at that time of the year because it was always filled with conversation accented by laughter and memories. Tears were sometimes shed but only because people were fondly remembered and missed.

Please share this video with your family with our best wishes here at Westover Family History for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year:

Loris Westover Recalls His Military Experiences — Part 3

The final installment of this audio from Loris Westover.

loris

Hear part one at this link
Hear part two at this link

Loris Westover Recalls His Military Experiences — Part 2

ATT3058204In this section of the narrative audio Uncle Loris details Navy life in the years before the war leading up to and including the events of December 7th, 1941 at Pearl Harbor.

Loris talks about the condition of his ship and crew that Sunday morning and how they were the first ship out of the harbor.

Though his 4-year enlistment was complete the war changed things for everyone and Loris remained in the Navy.

Go to Part 1 by clicking here
Go to Part 3 by clicking here

Loris Westover Recalls His Military Experiences — Part 1

This is the first of three recordings of Loris Westover recounting his military experience in World War II, inclusive of his experiences at Pearl Harbor.

This recording was made in 2001. Loris is recorded by his brother, Darrell J. Westover. (I am uncertain how this was first recorded. There is some background noise that I attempted to minimize. You can hear Loris and Darrell clearly but the background noise is still evident but improved over the original).

I have some knowledge of Loris’ life story but I am hoping this post gets passed around to his family and invite them to comment or share memories of his life and story as an attachment to these posts. I believe they can better represent his story than I ever could. I did not have the opportunity to get to know Loris but it is a thrill to hear his voice through the stories he tells in these recordings.

In this portion of the recording Loris recounts enlisting at the age of 17 and his experiences and observations at boot camp. He recalls being shipped on an oil tanker from San Diego to Vallejo and assigned to the Indianapolis where he worked scrubbing decks. After a week he was transferred to the Henley.

Special thanks to Marc Westover for providing me with this recording to add to our archives here.

Go to Part 2 by clicking here
Go to Part 3 by clicking here