Family History

DeDe Smith, one of the designers I CT for, has started recording her personal family history about a year ago with her weekly layouts for her project 365. While she felt somewhat overwhelmed at the thought of gather all the history from all her family members, she was inspired during a recently Sunday School lesson to start with her own story. I've been doing a similar project each month at Digitals by scrapping a page on certain topics each month. I hope to one day have something I can pass down to my DD and her children.

With family being the most important thing in our lives, how can we not pass down our history and past to the generations that follow us. It can be something simple like a journal, a scrapbook page, post on a blog we save for the future family members, anything. The important thing is that you pass on your story. So, I plan to forward on DeDe's question each week to you, as well as answer them here for my family. I hope you will join with me in answering these questions and saving your history for the future.

What is your full name? Who were you named for? How did you get your name? How do you feel about your name?

My name is Joan LaRita. My dad picked my first name and named me after my mom. While she did not want me to share her whole name, as it is hard for most people to say her middle name, she was proud to share her first name with me. LaRita came from my mom's first cousin Rita, who sang at their wedding.

When my mom was pregnant with me, my Dad would tease my mom and her sister about what he was going to name me. He kept telling them he was going to name me Georgis Leviticus. My aunt who was learning the books of the Bible at the time said that was the only way she could remember Leviticus and prayed each night I would be a girl, so he would have to name me something else. She got her wish and I'm glad she did.

As for my name, while I didn't always like it, I'm proud now to share my mom's name. She was my best friend and I miss her dearly. Thanks, Dad for naming me after mom.

I hope you will follow along. Let me know if you are, so I can read your history too.