One of my Great G. G. Grandfathers, John Sayer, born 1750, was a relatively famous fur trader and a partner in the Northwest Fur Company of Montreal, Canada. There are pieces of information about him in a dozen or more history books in Canada and Minnesota but oh, how I would love to be able to read a biography written in his own hand. Unfortunately, for me, he never wrote one. One of the reasons he is relatively famous is because he did keep a day-by-day journal of his winter trading with the Indians, in 1804–5 on the Snake River near where Pine City, Minnesota is located today. They have rebuilt the fort-like trading post that he had built there a few miles northwest of Pine City, and actors are employed to play the parts of the characters that John Sayer wrote about in his journal.
You, too, probably have had a similar wish, that your pioneer ancestors had written their life stories so that you might read and enjoy them and share them with your children. While you are wishing for such sacred historical information about your ancestors, know that one day your descendents are going to wish for the same about you.
Today we have software capable of merging digital text, with digital pictures, and with a person’s digital voice to make a CD that can be played on either a computer or on the TV at home. This sophisticated software is a little too expensive for most individuals to purchase for home use, but it is available for people to use at the Ogden Family History Center.
The finished CD product will be etched on the CD and last, as far as we know, for decades. The CD can be duplicated and shared with all your family members for just a few dollars each.
There is less expensive software available that individuals may purchase for home use, less sophisticated, yet it will do a good job capturing your life. In today’s world there are very few excuses for a person not to leave their life story for future generations to enjoy.
If you don’t do it yourself, there may be, if you are lucky, a descendent who loved you enough who will write it for you. That someone else, however, may not say the things that you would want to say about yourself, and they surely will not be able to interject your feelings concerning the events in your life that they do write about.
The Prophets have advised us that it is one of our spiritual obligations to keep a journal and write our family and personal histories for posterity. We have trained staff at family history centers who can help you fulfill this responsibility, you and your descendents will both be blessed if you do. When all is said and done, “All we really are is our story.”