These are the photographs that started my life-long interest in recording my family history. I think the image above came first. I found it in a green wooden document box sitting in my paternal grandmother's attic. This is my Grandma's family. Her name was Naomi Lyda Heckel (not Lydia, mind you), and she's the little girl seated next to her mother. Her older sister was Ruth, and Mary was the eldest daughter in the family.

Gramma patiently wrote the names of her brothers and sisters on the back of this photo for me. And I can see that the date, 1902 is in my Father's handwriting. My Grandmother would have been 5 years old. I was thrilled to be allowed to take the photograph home with me, and felt I'd been appointed the family historian. Shortly after this, she gave me framed copies of the two images below. The first is another one of my Grandmother with my Aunt Ruth. From what I remember, she told me that a neighbor had photographed the two little girls taking a barefoot stroll in the muddy road near their home in Eden, east of Lancaster city, Lancaster county, c. 1899. The second image is all three of the Heckel sisters - Ruth, Naomi, and Mary. This is probably from 1897 or 1898 since my Grandmother is the baby here and was born on her mother's birthday, January 16, 1897.

Do you have photographs that you'd like to get online or copy and keep on a zip drive or CD so that you can share them with your family? I'd be happy to help you preserve your story. Please contact me to talk about the various ways you can digitally scrapbook and keep your family history.

And visit my video page for links to my Vimeo and You Tube pages where you can view video files I've created to chronicle my family history. I'd be happy to create one for you about your family.