Don’t you love the richness of a picture of your ancestors – and don’t you long to know more about them, and the stories behind the pictures?
This one is of my great-great-grandmother – Jane Kent Mudgett – she is holding the flowers in the center of the picture and her husband Jeremiah Mudgett is next to her.
Instead of wondering “who are these people?” — thankfully, on the back of the photo in my grandfather’s handwriting comes a bit of description. This was her Sunday School class and she was the teacher. He did not know the occasion for the flowers but believes the picture was taken around 1900.
I would love to know more about this picture and this couple in particular because they are responsible for changing our family surname. To date, I have only found 2 pictures of them but in my genealogy research I got more of the story from an article recounted by someone who knew them. It was in a local county history book.
The description was that they had no children of their own but took in and raised several children and were known as wonderful parents. Jane was the sister of my great-grandfather’s mother who died after giving birth to him and his twin brother. The father was overwhelmed due to other kids and the whole situation so Jane took the babies — she and Jeremiah raised them and gave them their surname.
What if no one had taken this photo, printed it and kept it in our family? And my grandfather had not taken time to write even the brief info on the back of it? And whomever wrote the descriptive article had not taken time to do that so that we would know about Jane and Jeremiah and their reputation as loving, caring parents who took in and raised children?
We would not have today the full explanation of how our family surname was changed at that point – but mostly, we would have missed out on that rich story of our heritage of a godly, loving family. They moved from Wisconsin and homesteaded in Oklahoma. And they must have stayed close as a family because land ownership records showed them always living in close proximity to their children and grandchildren (one of whom was my grandfather). Plus census records showed me that a few of the older grandkids lived with Jane in her later years.
As I have worked on the photos and stories part of my website, I have referenced that section as my “heart” section. Primarily, the scripture in Deuteronomy 6:5 is my guide “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
The “strength” is the health section of my website, the “soul” is the conflict resolution section and the “heart” is the photos/stories section.
Why? Because our mental or spiritual health reflects the renewing of our mind from the very deepest part of our heart – which for many of us is our personal and family stories of blessings, hardships, and obstacles overcome. It is the way we process and remember and pass along these outlook-shaping times reflecting what the Lord has done and how He has shown up in our lives that determines if we journey on in our lives as ‘victims’ or ‘victors’.
If you read the rest of chapter 6 in Deuteronomy, you will see how Moses told the Israelites to pass along to their children and their children the stories and commandments of the Lord’s leading and blessing of them as he led them into the promised land.
In my opinion, and experience, how we record the personal and family stories in our photos and albums, the memorialized stories of our families – and pass those along to our children and their children – is a most powerful way to love the Lord “with all our heart”.
So, I know my urging of your “printing” photos seems “behind the times” in this digital age. But I would point out a couple of key items to consider.
Today, just about everyone who carries a mobile phone has the digital equivalent of the photo album. Social media has made it so that photos are shared not just on special occasions, but constantly. However, just try finding a photo from a birthday party or graduation that wasn’t last week. Or even last month, or last year or worse yet, years ago. Those can be terribly difficult to find.
So, yes, I would encourage you to print those special photos and put them in frames, on the walls, wherever. But most importantly, I will encourage you to create a printed digital album. Adjust your thinking about how big a project that is – these days there are quick and easy digital photobooks anyone can create – no real skill required. And you can narrow down the topic and content. And there are even some with auto fill-in options that make it easy-peasy. The best part is that digital photobooks allow easy ways to add the “story” details.
Think about what topic, what photo, what story you would like to have preserved and shared with future generations? My challenge? Start thinking and planning now – and stay tuned for the opportunity to put it into a digital (printed) photobook. It’s coming!
I always loved the saying we used on this subject: A birth certificate shows you were born, a death certificate shows you died, but a photo album shows you LIVED!
