Saturday, March 3, 2012

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - The Genealogy Time Capsule Challenge

Hey genea-philes - it's SATURDAY NIGHT!! Time for more GENEALOGY FUN!!


Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to respond to Bill West's Genealogist's Time Capsule Challenge - read his post on West in New England.  Answer these questions:


1. Make a list of what you would put in a time capsule and why you'd choose each item.

2, What would you use for the time capsule? Where would you have it kept?

3. Write a blog post with the above information. If you don't have a blog,  send your time capsule idea to me as a comment to this post or email it to me. If you do have a blog, make sure to send me 
the link to your time capsule post. (West in New England.)

Thanks, Bill, for the great idea!


Here's mine:  


1)  My list of things I would put into the time capsule (labelled, of course...):


*  My manual typewriter -- how we used to type things up.
*  A fountain pen and inkwell (sealed) -- before ballpoint pens...
*  My slide rule -- how I calculated everything in high school and college
*  my grandfather's pocket watch -- from the 1890s
*  my aeronautical vestpocket handbook (from United Technologies) -- useful information about everything aeronautical in the 1970s
*  my Hewlett-Packard HP-45 calculator -- what I used before computers
*  my memoirs -- my life and times, probably boring
*  a collection of all of the Seaver/Richmond Family Journal issues -- for posterity!
*  my Betty Carringer ancestry book (in paper and on a CD) -- for posterity!
*  my genealogy database (on a USB drive) -- forp osterity, and to see if the USB drive can still be read.


2)  I would use a fairly large metal box, seal it with duct tape, and write on it "For my great-grandchild to open when s/he reaches age 12."  I'd also stipulate in my will that my daughter was to keep this in a safe and cool place and to open it with her grandchild (if she lives that long) and that they should have a family get-together to talk about great-grandpa Randy's family history.  


3)  Done!  Now I'll send the link to Bill West at West in New England..


1 comment:

Geolover said...

Your selection is fun :D

Duct tape! Heheheh, the stickum will become nonfunctional within a few years. Since there is no way to predict what weather-vulnerable locale your daughter's family may reside in in the future, why not a bronze or titanium sphere with a hatch that is soldered closed?

Any paper items must be printed on 100% cotton rag paper.

Would suggest including a device with its charging accoutrements that can read the USB . . . .