Recording Family Stories Part 2: Sorting Photos and Using Twile to Share Family History Photos and Stories

The Felting Sisters

In an earlier blog, I talked about how my sisters and I, "The Felting Sisters", using the opportunity of an annual visit to talk about memories of our childhood. While the main focus of our time together was to enjoy some time experimenting with felt art, we took some time to talk about our memories from our childhood. This year, we also decided to sort through some of the old childhood photos that our dad kept in a Rubbermaid bin.

We lived in many different places during our childhood so we decided to sort the photos by location. We spent time trying to determine dates and location of each photo but eventually we were able to assign all of the photos to the correct zip-lock bag.

Childhood photos sorted into location

We ended up with about 13 packages starting with photos from Belize (1946-1954), to our first move to San Fernando, Trinidad (1954-1956). Next we moved to Georgetown, Guyana (1956-1964), then back to San Fernando (1964-1969), and on to Port of Spain, Trinidad (1969-1970). Included in separated bags were two trips - one to Scotland (1959-1960), and to Belize (1963-1964). The next step is for me to scan the photos and save in a central location to share with all of my siblings.

In order to make it easy to share the work that we have been doing recording stories and dating photos, we decided to us a free website specifically developed for sharing family stories, especially timelines, called Twile https://twile.com/ With Twile, we can share our individual timelines in one account highlighting important dates along with the associated pictures and narrative. In time, as my siblings and I upload photos and add narrative about these events, the timelines will become richer and a great resource for all of us and for our children.

While the front end of Twile shows the 'events' timeline with attached photo and short description of event (see above), the back end of each 'event' allows you to add comments, photos, narratives, videos, and documents (see below). You can also identify the location of the event by entering the address and a map will show the location. Finally, you can identify all the people in your family that took part in this event (using the family tree that you have created or uploaded to the site).

Comments

On the way to Canada!!

Well, I thought that I would check to see how Aunt Nena got up to Canada from Belize to enlist in the Canadian Armed Forces in order 'to serve the empire'. I thought it was the same way that dad did but, being a good genealogist, I wanted to confirm her travel dates and modes of transport. Dad received his Transfer Certificate (visa) to enter the United States in Belize on Jan 13, 1941. On Feb 9 th 1941, he left Belize on the ship the S. S. Toloa, a United Fruit Company ship, sailing from Guatemala to New Orleans, arriving on February 13th 1941. He spent about a week with his aunt Mrs. A. White (his mother’s sister) at 6655 General Diaz for about a week. Then his aunt put him on the Greyhound bus to Canada probably similar to the one in the picture below which was in operation in 1941. The bus took 2 days to reach Canada, stopping along the way in order for the passengers to have a meal. They entered Canada through the port of entry of Detroit an...

Scotland Family Research Trip: Oban - WW 2 Costal Command Unit

I am writing this blog from the small seaside community of Oban on the West coast of Scotland. It is here that we are starting our family history research while on vacation in Scotland. My husband, Dave, is researching his dad's time in Oban during WW2 when he served with the RAF Costal Command unit. I, myself, am planning to spend some time in archives, museums, and libraries in East Lothian, Edinburgh, and the Scottish border. And hopefully collecting family photos and documents that may be stored at my sister's home in East Linton and my aunt's home in Gullane. One of the interesting parts of this research is the fact that both my dad and my husband's dad trained for the Royal Canadian Air Force through the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan in Canada. And when they were shipped out to Britain in December 1941 they were shipped out on the same troop ship. At this point, their paths diverged and Dave's dad eventually ended up in an RAF Costal Command u...

Signing up to 'serve the empire in uniform'

Juanita Anderson WD-RCAF Aunt Nena was a firecracker. She always had an enthusiasm for travel and adventure. Her full name was Juanita Maria Anderson but we knew her as Aunt Nena. Before the war broke out, she was a teenager attending high school in New Orleans. She was 15 years old when she arrived in New Orleans on August 18, 1939 to start the fall term. When Britain declared war on Germany on September 3rd, 1939, her mother (my grandmother Henrietta Maria Orio) brought her back to Belize because she did not know if the estate money that she was receiving from England would be able to reach her in Belize due to the war, money that she would need to pay for Nena's education in New Orleans. Henrietta was a widow at that time with 5 children, one of whom was my father, Charles "Buster" Anderson. Although Nena continued her high school education in Belize, she never graduated and was eager to join her older brother (my father) in t...

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