This will be a slight detour from my quilting but it does go hand in hand. Frequently, quilters will just make a quilt and give it to someone without a label on the back……. For my future quilts, I am adding a label on each one.

The label will have the following:
Who made the quilt
Who quilted it (I sometimes have my quilts custom quilted)
The date finished
Who the recipient is

Keep a picture of it in a file so you can also remember the art. Now with family history, please talk to your elder family members. As a kid, I never asked my grandfather about his service in World War I, how he met Grandma, his family or anything else. I just knew he had served in them Army, liked his golf, his cigars and his family.

I remember he was normally gone in the summer months but always remembered my birthday (July baby) with a little something when he and Nana returned.
This picture is of my Nana and the ladies she lunched with. Lydian Marie Stiger is 3rd from the right. Great clothes and beautiful hats. That was an era of great fashion.

Recently, my Mother was given a box of old letters and files from one of her cousins. It seems that he asked my Grandpa about his father and the other uncles. It was amazing reading about where the family settled, what companies hired them, the earnings, etc. Grandpa typed a 5 page letter, single spaced with very little margins and gave a detailed report about the Stiger family history. My Mom is taking the information and writing a book on our past.

When you come across photos, find out who is in the photo and approximately when it was taken. I remember being with my paternal grandmother decades ago and describing the photo and she could tell me everything about it. Now Grandma was blind but she remembered everything and everybody. The sad thing was I didn’t write any of this down thinking that other family members would receive the photo albums. Oddly enough, my cousins did not want the albums and I ended up with them. My dad, aunts and uncle I recognize but am at a loss as for the background.

So ask your grandparents, aunts, uncles, great aunts and uncles about your history. Write it down or do some research but keep the memories to pass down.