Sepia Saturday Week 17

Roll up, roll up for Week 17 of Sepia Saturday. Based on the widespread, major, sophisticated consultation procedure that we carried out last week it would seem that most people prefer to enter their link after they have posted and thereby enter a specific link to the Sepia Saturday post rather than the general blog.  Some people however still want to provide an indication that they intent to post, in which case they might like to leave a comment announcing their intention to post and then a link to the specific post. Alternatively they can add a link to their blog whenever they want or alternatively ...  they can do whatever they like. Sepia Saturday is that kind of anarchic thing.

My clip from last week's postings had to be this picture from Leah's wonderful post "Leather-Booted Great-Grandpa" which you can find - if you've not already seen it - on her equally wonderful blog "The Weather In The Streets".  Week 17 of Sepia Saturday will be on Saturday 27th March 2010 so sign up / comment / do nothing now if you intent to participate. And a word of advanced warning - following an equally thorough consultation process, I have decided to skip a Sepia Saturday over Easter and therefore Sepia Saturday 18 will be on Saturday 10th April.

Sepia Saturday Week 16

It is a bit like when you first get married - multiplied by a factor of thirty-odd! I well remember the mixture of joy and slight bewilderment as I was suddenly faced with a whole new family tree with its complex stories and strange inter-relationships. It takes time before you realise that Auntie R was the sister of Auntie M whose daughter used to be married to David B and not David J who is from a different part of the family altogether. Well, with Sepia Saturday you have a whole forest of family trees to delight in and I, for one, am loving the process of discovering each and every branch. Take Barry, for example, who is introducing us to his family via a splendid sepia family portrait taken in 1890. Each week he takes one of the members of this family group and tells their story - and what wonderful stories they are. Other people have a more haphazard approach to Sepia Saturday, jumping from branch to branch and tree to tree like a genealogical spider monkey. The beauty of Sepia Saturday is that whatever approach you take is fine : the enjoyment is just as much in the variety of approaches as in the subject matter itself.

Sepia Saturday 16 will be on Saturday 20th March 2010. Over the last few weeks it has become apparent that many participants are signing up to the list after they have posted and this enables them to include a link direct to the post rather than the the generic blog. I must confess - as a leisured reader of Sepia Saturday posts over a number of days - I find this approach very useful. Perhaps people can leave comments as to which they prefer before we issue guidance. But even if we issue guidance, that's all it will be : there are enough rules in life without Sepia Saturday adding to the stock.

Sepia Saturday Week 15

One of the things I like most of all about our joint Sepia Saturday enterprise is the way in which a common starting point - an old photograph - can lead to so many directions of travel. For some it is the story behind the photograph, for others it is a tone-poem of memories. And for others it is a magnificent ride through great chunks of family, economic and social history - like a blog-post equivalent of "How The West Was Won". My chosen photograph this week comes from last weeks' Sepia Saturday contribution by that  ever-resourceful and always entertaining blogger, David M Lynch (The Silver Fox). In "Sepia Saturday - Heroes and Villains", I loved the description of the way Joe Korsak Sr married not just Aunt Josie, but the entire family. In a way that is what we do with our Sepia Saturday posts, we share our families and their rich and varied stories. Week 15 of Sepia Saturday will be Saturday 13th March, so feel free to sign up and share your family - share your history.

Sepia Saturday Week 14

Is it just me, or do other people agree that our Sepia Saturday posts are getting better and better? I find myself looking forward just as much to reading all the other contributions as I do to putting my own together. This is just as well as I will not be able to post myself this week - we will be out of the country until Sunday - but I will still be able to read all your contributions. Contributions like the one from first-time Sepia Saturday contributor, Vicki Lane, who told the story of her grandparents with two fine photographs and some very well chosen words. The ability to tell a life story with images and words seems to me to be what Sepia Saturday is all about. Week 14 of Sepia Saturday will be Saturday 6th March. Please sign up to the list so people can find your blog and your contribution.