1. Family Tree Magazine
I never thought of magazines as stocking stuffers until I got married, but in my husband's family, everyone always has a magazine or 5 sticking out of the top of their stockings on Christmas morning. It's still a little foreign to me, but since my husband always goes out of his way to make sure my magazines are ones like Family Tree Magazine, or other, less common genealogy magazines (or Crochet Today!, but this might not be the right audience for that one), it's something I've come to look forward to! If you want to go big, have the magazine in the stocking be representative of a year's subscription, in print or on Kindle.
2. A flash drive
The bigger, the better! (In terms of storage capacity, that is.) Because every genealogist wants to be able to save digital images or original documents somewhere convenient, or to bring along digital notes and other materials when on a research trip. (An especially good gift for someone whose spouse left her flash drive behind in a computer at NEHGS last February.)3. Christmas Ornaments
My mom used to get those picture frame Christmas ornaments (like these) each year and put our school pictures in them. If you do this each year, they're a family heirloom being made in real time. You could also, however, put pictures of your ancestors in them to make your Christmas tree a family tree. Or make these cool Heritage Ornaments from Caroline Pointer of 4YourFamilyStory.com.
4. A disposable camera
(They still make these, right? Looks like they do!) Because, as I've said before, the digital is ephemeral. The photographs that will last are the ones that are physical objects. Genealogists don't just love to discover the past, they love to document the present for the future. Give a genealogist a disposable camera and let her document this Christmas in a way that you'll be able to show your grandchildren!
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A shame about that lost flash drive! My local Archives have lots of them in the 'lost property' box. Mine all have a small sticky label with my name, phone number and PO-Box address.
ReplyDeleteJudy, we called, and they located it, and promised to mail it to us, but it never showed up. (And in fairness, my husband already replaced mine, but I couldn't resist getting in a little dig!) I like the idea of labeling them, though - I'll have to start doing that!
ReplyDeleteLost USB's happen. Judy the idea of sticky label is very good. Thanks for that hint.
ReplyDeleteI have some sort of cord or lanyard on most of mine and a keytag with what's on the USB stick written on the keytag. It works for me as we have several similar sticks. Happy researching everyone!
Geraldine, I like your idea of using a keytag to keep track of what's on each one. The first time I used a flash drive at my local Archives, I was convinced I'd leave it behind, so I tied a piece of string on it and tied that to my wrist!
ReplyDeleteI also file away all those "Annual" letters into folders and find it very interesting to go back over them. I also keep a copy of the one I send out
ReplyDeleteSome great ideas here about keeping track of flash drives!
ReplyDeletePat, I always try to hold on to those holiday letters, too, although we don't get very many of them anymore!
My mother has saved Birthday, Anniversary, Christmas cards for as long as I can remember(and I'll be 67 in June). I am currently trying to go through all of them and make her a Memory Album. Putting in the cards, letters and pictures. She will be 90 in June and I want to give this to her for her birthday. Copying each page and will burn onto disks for each of us kids and they can print if they want.
ReplyDelete