In the years before he died, I remember him going through family pictures with me, telling me the names of people in the pictures. He had a book that was chock-full of his memories, documenting his experience in the Navy in WWII, when he served over in Papua, New Guinea, and other phases in his life. The book is nothing short of amazing. He even has the bus ticket from the day he joined the Navy, leaving his hometown of Rockholds, Kentucky, when he was 17 years-old. In addition to this scrapbook, he also wrote his own 39-page biography. I cherish this information so much.
Before Grandfather died, he gave the book to my Mom, asking that she make a copy for Uncle Danny. That was 20 years ago. My Mom attempted to copy pictures from the book at CVS, but it became VERY costly, and that was before digital scanners were fairly affordable. I know Uncle Danny has asked my Mom about the book in the past. My Mom didn't really often want to get it out, as the pictures were out of the book and she didn't want to mess up the order.
This past Christmas, I told my Mom I would like to take on the project of completing the book for everyone, as a secret. :) She gave the book to me. We bought a new copier / scanner and printer, to get the job done. I scanned each of the pages of his scrapbook and also scanned in Grandfather's separate biography. I also added quite a few different family history pages (in Powerpoint, etc), as well as some supporting documentation on genealogy.
My Grandfather always told me we were related to an Indian Chief named Standing Door. It was my goal to find out more information on Standing Door and include that information in the book. I did find out that we may be related to a Chief Standing Deer, who is documented on a monument in a cemetery in Kentucky. Unfortunately (but fortunately) many Lawsons are searching to resolve the unanswered question regarding this relation. I was able to include all of my genealogy research, including Chief Standing Deer information. I know that if Grandfather were alive, he would probably be having a ball with http://www.ancestry.com/, trying to find the answer to that question...
I found a very cool Web site called http://www.zazzle.com/. I was able to somewhat easily design customized three-ring binders that included Grandfather's Navy picture. His name is written in scroll-like script on the binding. On the back, in scroll-like font, it says "Families are forever". I was amazed at how nice it turned-out! Doug was patient enough to show me how to do some things in PhotoShop, to make the book look phenomenal. We created a nice cover page on which each different phase of Grandfather's life is represented:
- A picture of Grandfather as a baby with his Mom and sister Jean,
- A picture of Grandfather with Grandmother, around the date of their marriage,
- A picture of Grandfather with his family (Grandmother, Uncle Danny and Mom),
- A picture of Grandfather with his grandkids (me, Sherry, Jamin and Ginger), when camping.
All of the pages are in clear sheet protectors and most are also on nice photo paper within this custom 3-ring binder. Ideally I would've liked to have the book bound, but didn't feel I should do that; I wanted to ensure family members could remove or add to it, if they chose to do so. I made / included a cd of each of the pages in the book, and also included a cd to which I added family pictures, census information, marriage records, etc. I tucked these two cd's into the back pocket of the binder. I also created a section in which gravestones of family members were listed by cemetery location. I had to do some research to find the GPS coordinates of graveyards in the middle of rural Kentucky. Easier said than done...
We had a trip planned to go to Michigan in late July. My goal was to be able to present this book when we were in Michigan. I made the deadline! I worked on the book through the beginning of July, tweaking things. I made seven original copies of the book; one for Grandmother, Mom, Uncle Danny, Sherry, Jamin, Ginger and myself. We were able to present the books to everyone the Saturday we were in Michigan. Everyone seemed to sincerely appreciate the book.
It's hard to believe that he has been gone 20 years. What touched my heart was to see my nephew Jordan reading through the book, learning more about his Great Grandfather. I pray through reading it, it will be made evident to him how faithfully Grandfather followed God and provided for his family. I pray his example lives on for generations. See below for highlights from the book.
Peace, love and great family memories,
Shelly, Doug, Ava and Liam
They're all done! Seven copies later...
The front cover
Clinton Lawson: A Branch of the Lawson & Murray Family Tree
The back cover:
The binding:
Doug helped out quite a bit with this page. We took a picture of the Oak Alley Plantation and put pictures of the different phases of Grandfather's life. Honestly, it just worked out that way!
Close up of the cover page pictures. I tried to keep any typing or writing that Grandfather did, to keep the book as true as possible to the original. I enlarged his signature in some places, as well.
I created a color-coded Powerpoint slide with the different sides of Grandfather's family tree, to make the family tree more easily understandable...
Another Powerpoint slide I created, that has his relatives labeled by couple / generation.
Grandfather's biography, page 1 of 39.
"I was born on March 13, 1926 on Good Friday at Corn Creek..."
This is the portion I made sure to note, that wasn't Grandfather's, relaying my attempt to resolve the unanswered question: "Are we related to Chief Standing Door?"
I made sure to clearly identify which pages Grandfather didn't include originally...
This is the list of family gravestones and their location. It took quite some time to put together, but hopefully it will be useful to someone one day.
Grandfather's signature. He had such beautiful handwriting, I think! I enlarged this fairly big and was sure to include this as the last page.
This is a collage of pictures of Grandfather and Grandmother together. The upper left-hand picture was actually taken on their first date in 1946. The lower right-hand picture is one taken on their 40th wedding anniversary trip to Niagra Falls. :) Doug helped teach me some PhotoShop skills to put this together. I love this sheet.
A picture of Grandfather, his sister and cousins taken in 1935 on Grandfather Murray's porch.
A picture of Grandfather taken when he was in the Navy.
Grandfather had labeled a map of the places and dates he served in or near Papua, New Guinea when he was overseas.
He kept some very interesting documents, newspaper clippings from WWII.
Very cool!
Grandfather's Navy picture. I used this picture for the cover of the binder.
Currency from different places he visited while serving in the Navy.
Medals he received for serving.
This is a picture taken on Grandfather and Grandmother's first date, to a carnival, in 1946. I love that they were able to capture this moment!
Va-va-voom! Grandmother on her birthday. She was 17 in this picture.
My favorite picture of the two of them. I think this was taken around the time they were married.
They were married before this picture was taken. The picture was taken in Detroit, MI.
Love this picture of Grandfather. :)
Taken in Pontiac, MI.
A picture of the family. Mom would've been almost two. :)
I created this page to show the different Lawson generations. Although Grandfather's Dad lived in Kentucky, I was able to meet him at least once.
Amazingly, Grandfather documented the different generations of ancestors and what he knew about them. All of the research I've done checks out entirely with his information. I think it's pretty cool that he was interested in writing this down.
