Bonnie Curran in Calgary, Alberta, and her sister Betty Gregory in High River, Alberta, decided to preserve their family’s history in a book before the photos and the stories that bring them alive are lost to time.
Bonnie and Betty, two sisters of nine siblings, were lucky. They didn’t have to rely solely on oral histories. “My grandfather kept a journal of his trip west from Ottawa to Fort Macleod in 1883,” Bonnie says. “My dad found the journal in an old trunk. The journal, along with my grandfather’s letters to his parents in Ottawa, gave us a good idea of what he went through after he made the decision to homestead out west.”
Betty’s and Bonnie’s grandfather and his younger brother set out for southern Alberta, travelling by train from Ottawa through the States to Billings, Montana. From Billings, they rode by stage to Fort Macleod. They left Ottawa on March 19th and finally arrived in Fort Macleod on April 24, 1883. The family’s history was too precious to lose to time. In 1998 Bonnie and Betty began writing and choosing pictures from the family’s store of old photos. “My
son had just moved to Australia, and we thought it would be nice to give him a little history of our family,” says Betty.
Bonnie says she didn’t include much detail in the stories that go with the pictures, but says now, “I wish I had included more of the stories of my parents, brother and sisters.”
The art of writing life stories to accompany photos is called “photoscribing” and, according to the Soleil Lifestory Network, based in Lisbon Falls, Maine, anyone with the interest can learn to do it. Denis Ledoux, founder of the Soleil LifestoryNetwork and author of Turning Memories Into Memoirs/A Handbook for Writing Lifestories, says that preserving the stories is just as important as preserving the image itself. Photoscribing adds a personal story or perhaps a family’s story to photo albums for the enjoyment and edification of future generations.
“Cameo” narratives of between 50 to 150 words can be used to accompany groups of photos or even just one photo. Sometimes the writer chooses to write short cameos even when there are no accompanying photos.
Bonnie and Betty included some short narratives in their family’s book. “Dad raised a horse called Midnight that became a world-famous bucking horse, so we included that story along with newspaper clippings and interviews,” says Bonnie. “In his journal, my grandfather talked about establishing a garden and selling vegetables to the Mounties in Fort Macleod in the early days, but he saw that ranching was the coming thing. To his parents, he wrote, ‘ … if we once get a start and a little band of cattle, we will never see a poor day. A band of cattle is as good as a gold mine in this country.”
History confirms his early vision. With the arrival of the parents and younger brother, McNab and Sons established the Horseshoe Outfit, that by 1889, ran 1500 to 1800 head of cattle using Highlander and Shorthorn bulls.
Sometimes when people have different versions of family stories, discrepancies pop up, but that wasn’t the case with Bonnie’s and Betty’s project. “The stories pretty well all matched up,” says Betty. “We had some newspaper clippings about the family coming west, and they seemed to support what we were writing based on the letters and journals.”
They describe their dad as an old-time cowboy and a great storyteller. “He saw cowboys come up the Chisholm Trail from Texas,” says Bonnie. “He was a wrangler when he was just a kid and worked for big outfits before there were fences. He had wonderful stories to tell, but you know how it is when you’re a kid, you don’t pay close enough attention to remember all the details.”
Their dad started writing his memoirs, but Bonnie says he got sidetracked researching different brands and never finished it. “It’s a real shame because he had a great way of expressing himself and was a great storyteller.”
The family sold the farm near Fort Macleod, but the memories, with the help of their book, live on. When Betty’s son was home from Australia in October, he and his wife wanted to take a trip out to the old farm. Says Bonnie, “The old farm’s not the same anymore, but we’re really happy the book generated that kind of interest.”
Once completed, the book was photocopied so each family member could receive one and give copies to their children.
“It’s a nice keepsake that people have really enjoyed,” says Bonnie. “For me, the book’s been just wonderful because I never met my grandfather. It’s a connection to him that’s really important to me.”
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Bonnie Curran in Calgary, Alberta, and her sister Betty Gregory in High River, Alberta, decided to preserve their family’s history in a book before the photos and the stories that bring them alive are lost to time.
Bonnie and Betty, two sisters of nine siblings, were lucky. They didn’t have to rely solely on oral histories. “My grandfather kept a journal of his trip west from Ottawa to Fort Macleod in 1883,” Bonnie says. “My dad found the journal in an old trunk. The journal, along with my grandfather’s letters to his parents in Ottawa, gave us a good idea of what he went through after he made the decision to homestead out west.”
Betty’s and Bonnie’s grandfather and his younger brother set out for southern Alberta, travelling by train from Ottawa through the States to Billings, Montana. From Billings, they rode by stage to Fort Macleod. They left Ottawa on March 19th and finally arrived in Fort Macleod on April 24, 1883. The family’s history was too precious to lose to time. In 1998 Bonnie and Betty began writing and choosing pictures from the family’s store of old photos. “My
son had just moved to Australia, and we thought it would be nice to give him a little history of our family,” says Betty.
Bonnie says she didn’t include much detail in the stories that go with the pictures, but says now, “I wish I had included more of the stories of my parents, brother and sisters.”
The art of writing life stories to accompany photos is called “photoscribing” and, according to the Soleil Lifestory Network, based in Lisbon Falls, Maine, anyone with the interest can learn to do it. Denis Ledoux, founder of the Soleil LifestoryNetwork and author of Turning Memories Into Memoirs/A Handbook for Writing Lifestories, says that preserving the stories is just as important as preserving the image itself. Photoscribing adds a personal story or perhaps a family’s story to photo albums for the enjoyment and edification of future generations.
“Cameo” narratives of between 50 to 150 words can be used to accompany groups of photos or even just one photo. Sometimes the writer chooses to write short cameos even when there are no accompanying photos.
Bonnie and Betty included some short narratives in their family’s book. “Dad raised a horse called Midnight that became a world-famous bucking horse, so we included that story along with newspaper clippings and interviews,” says Bonnie. “In his journal, my grandfather talked about establishing a garden and selling vegetables to the Mounties in Fort Macleod in the early days, but he saw that ranching was the coming thing. To his parents, he wrote, ‘ … if we once get a start and a little band of cattle, we will never see a poor day. A band of cattle is as good as a gold mine in this country.”
History confirms his early vision. With the arrival of the parents and younger brother, McNab and Sons established the Horseshoe Outfit, that by 1889, ran 1500 to 1800 head of cattle using Highlander and Shorthorn bulls.
Sometimes when people have different versions of family stories, discrepancies pop up, but that wasn’t the case with Bonnie’s and Betty’s project. “The stories pretty well all matched up,” says Betty. “We had some newspaper clippings about the family coming west, and they seemed to support what we were writing based on the letters and journals.”
They describe their dad as an old-time cowboy and a great storyteller. “He saw cowboys come up the Chisholm Trail from Texas,” says Bonnie. “He was a wrangler when he was just a kid and worked for big outfits before there were fences. He had wonderful stories to tell, but you know how it is when you’re a kid, you don’t pay close enough attention to remember all the details.”
Their dad started writing his memoirs, but Bonnie says he got sidetracked researching different brands and never finished it. “It’s a real shame because he had a great way of expressing himself and was a great storyteller.”
The family sold the farm near Fort Macleod, but the memories, with the help of their book, live on. When Betty’s son was home from Australia in October, he and his wife wanted to take a trip out to the old farm. Says Bonnie, “The old farm’s not the same anymore, but we’re really happy the book generated that kind of interest.”
Once completed, the book was photocopied so each family member could receive one and give copies to their children.
“It’s a nice keepsake that people have really enjoyed,” says Bonnie. “For me, the book’s been just wonderful because I never met my grandfather. It’s a connection to him that’s really important to me.”
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- Required fields are marked with *.