Grandma & Papa K Wedding: A Heritage Story to be Scrapbooked

I LOVE this little gem of a photo I discovered the last time I visited my parents back east. It is a picture of my Grandma & Papa K on their wedding day.

I don't really remember my grandparents well. I mostly have flitting childhood memories of playing at their home more then memories of Grandma and Papa themselves. So naturally, I have many questions about this photograph. When is this? How old are they? How did they meet? Why did they fall in love (aka "the story")? How did he propose? Who are the other people in the photo? Was he on leave? What is my grandma laughing at?

The fortunate thing is that most of their children are still alive: my mom, two of my aunts and one of my uncles. This means I have MANY resources to discover the answers. The trick is getting answers out of my family that live over 1200 miles away. They only sort of do email and just when asking them for some information about my Grandpa T who recently passed, it's been like pulling teeth. I'm sure seeing them in person would help get answers, but I only have that luxury 1-2 times a year with the high cost of airfare.

While it's fortuante that I have access to and will hunt down as many answers as possible, let's pretend I truly knew nothing more then this being a photograph of my Grandma and Papa K on their wedding day. Based on that, if I were to scrapbook this today, my journaling would not only include those questions above (pretending/assuming I had no way to get answers), it would also include my thoughts, feelings and observations about the photograph and what it reveals.

Sample Journaling: I love this photograph on my Grandma and Papa K on their wedding day. My mom's parents look incredible happy to be getting married to one another. The love and joy they shared reflects in their faces. I love the expression on my Grandmother's face. I love how her face is all crinkled up and their is a slight little space between her teeth. I love this because I smile the exact same way. When I am having a good ole time, I scrunch up my face in laughter and happiness, showing off those pearly whites for all the world to see. It's sweet to know I get that from my Grandma. And would you look at the height of the hair on my Papa's head! What is that about? I know he was a tall a man, and this must have really drew a man's eye up when he ran across them in the war. I believe he was a part of WWII. I also really see my cousin Gary's features reflected in his face.-

Sample Journaling Continued: Who are these other people pictured? I'm going to guess that it is the maid of honor and the best man. I am also guessing that the maid of honor is Grandma's sister because they have similar facial features. I am guessing the same of the best man. I am betting the best man is Papa's brother because of the nose. Though he looks older, maybe old enough to be his father, but knowing that Papa was one of 10-12 siblings, I'm guessing it's his brother.

Journaling thoughts continued. If I couldn't see any resemblance of the other people in the photo to my grandparents, I would still be musing if they were the best man and maid of honor. I would probably be guessing they were the respective best friends of my grandparents. Also, if I had enough room on the layout (I would probably make room), I would talk about the background and what's on the table in front of them.

This method could also apply to any heritage photo you have with extremely limited knowledge, i.e. only the person's relationship to you. Even without that, you can still use a similar method to document and record that person's memory and legacy. And when in doubt, don't forget to talk about how you feel: frustrated at lack of knowledge, curiosity about details or the background in the photograph, expressions on people's or their features and how they make you feel. Don't let the fact that you don't know anything, or could "get it wrong" stop you from scrapbooking your treasures. Besides, if you really do find out you were wrong someday down the road, you would always have more fodder for another page.