Denver Postcard Club
Today there are so many ways to digitally record your personal and family story. But will your descendants take the time to search through thousands of your digital photos and videos? How will they know what's important in them? Is there enough information captured to understand their context? Will they even have the software to access them? With their images, personal messages, and postmarks, postcards contain dimensions that go beyond a digital record. With a creative plan for assembling them, groups of postcards can tell stories that are exciting, heartfelt, and enduring.
Family Genealogy and History: Just as family pictures add to the excitement of genealogy research, so do postcards. In addition to real photo postcards that show family members and convey the event or time that made the photo notable, view postcards can show the hospital where they were born, the church where they were married, and streets where they grew up. Buying and sending postcards (even to oneself) of the landmarks throughout your own life will leave a record of your environment and thoughts for your own children and grandchildren.
Personal and Family Travel: Postcards can enhance travel experiences in several ways. By choosing memorable cards along your trip, honing the message on each to a particular interest or theme, and mailing the cards back to yourself, you can create a memoir of your adventures, learning, reactions, and insights. By writing and posting one or two cards a day, you can create a travelogue without the burden of carrying a notebook. Another approach is to use your itinerary to locate and acquire vintage postcards of the places you'll visit and use these to learn more about the location and its history from the internet and local residents. Old postcards of town centers, motels, monuments, and national landmarks make great ice breakers and can be used to obtain reminiscences from those who have lived through many changes, especially when revisiting sites as your family ages.