Once you find out the meaning of your name and the names of those in your family, why not make some real nice to display the meanings?

Okay, “real nice” might be a stretch, but you can place the names and meanings on a chart to display proudly or to file away; you choose.

We’ve created a little word processing document for your downloading pleasure. Take the document and add your name and the name of your family members.

You can then refer to each other by your name’s meaning.

To download, the Family Name Meanings Chart, click here.

Some families are very open about the matter while others wouldn’t dare talk about it.

One thing is for sure, a lot of arguing and miscommunication can be avoided with a few easy steps.

1. Identify the important heirlooms
2. Understand why the heirlooms or keepsakes are important
3. Use a system for determining who gets what.

If your’s is the case that no one wants the same knick knack, keepsake or heirloom, good for you. For many families however, there’s going to be a few commonly desired items.

To help foster a fair environment, have family members identify what family keepsakes are important to them. Each family member should rank the items they would like in terms of importance, and identify why the item is important to them. The family can then help make sure that everyone on the list gets at least their first or second choice in items. Family members that are more closely related to the heirloom hold should receive higher priority in their wishes.
We’ve created a free download to help you track and manage requests within your family for family keepsakes. To download the form, click here.

They’re the things that you just don’t have the heart to throw out during spring cleaning because they mean something to you.
The keepsake may be trinkets from an eventful family trip you took when you were younger. You may have a watch that belonged to your great-grandfather. You may have a journal or original photographs. Whatever the heirlooms and knick-knacks you possess, you’ll probably want to pass them on at some point. They have a sentimental value that carries meaning that you would like shared with your children or family.

How sad it would be however if your family:

1. Couldn’t find your heirlooms after you’re gone
2. Couldn’t tell what family keepsakes were important to you

May we suggest a simple solution: write down the keepsakes, knick-knacks, and heirlooms that are important to you. You could also encourage other family members to do the same. It’s a pretty fun little exercise to reflect on items that mean a lot to you because you’re reminded of friends, families, events, and the good ol’ days.

Writing down what are your keepsakes is the first step. Then write down where your keepsakes are kept (probably all over the place which is a good reason to write down the location). Finally, write down why your keepsakes are important to you.

You may have a favorite book that you’ve kept and read many, many times. Wouldn’t it be great if a descendant of yours who wanted to get to know you better after you’re gone had the item and knew that it was important to you?

If no one knows why a keepsake is important to you, the item may be passed over some day by your descendants, and tossed out. For example, I have a watch and fedora that belonged to my great-grandfather. If I don’t tell my children where those items came from and why they’re important to me, they may get thrown out some day (something that I nor great-grandpa would like very much).

Think that would never happen?  Believe me, if you’ve ever gone to clean someone’s house after they’ve passed away, there’s a lot of stuff that gets thrown away because to those cleaning up, the stuff is just, well, stuff.  However, if the family has a way of knowing what’s important and should be passed down, the important items will have a better chance of being saved.

If you want to keep keepsakes as keepsakes, write down the what, the why, and the where.

To make things easy for you, we’ve created a simple tracker that you can use to keep track of family heirlooms. You can use the form for yourself, or for your extended family to track family keepsakes.

To download the free tracker, click here.

Make a copy or two of the tracker once you’ve filled it out, and give it to your family members. It’ll make for a good time as you discuss your memories. Place another copy along with your will or other important documents.

As mentioned in a previous article, it’s much easier to write a rich personal history if you write by topic. We suggest creating a separate document for each topic. You’ll then be making great progress on your entire personal history one bite at a time.

To make things easier for you, we’ve created twenty Personal History Documents/Templates to help get you started. All you need to do is:

1. Download and extract the documents (contained in one “zipped” folder).
2. Enter your information (name and date) in a few places
3. Start entering your personal history

It almost couldn’t be easier. The templates are very simple, but are designed to help get you started with your personal history. Just a few minutes a week can help you create great additions to your personal history.

These starter documents or templates follow the ideas and formats specified in our article How to Write Your Personal History.

Personal History by – (Enter Your Full Name) – Topic.rtf

We’ve saved the documents in the Rich Text Format (RTF for short) which allows you to insert pictures and use different fonts. The RTF document format is one of the most common text formats across all types of computers.

We suggest that once you write your history that you save your document as a PDF which is a standard format for preserving and publishing digital documents.

To download the Personal History Templates, click here.