A Future Letter



Doing your family history and the family tree is always looking back in time to what happened and to whom was involved. It is really fascinating to uncover any bit of news or facts about your ancestors, after all, that is how you reached the place you would call home.

Yet you can look at it another way, what about in the future, not just what you might be doing or living but other family members, where will they be and achieving? An online web site titled ‘Future Me‘ has for a number of years done just that. Simply by you or someone else taking a few minutes to write to you or someone else in the family in the future, can you truly know more what was happening at a certain time frame.

What better time than right now – 2020 – the year of the Pandemic across the globe, unemployment, being shut-in to your home, wearing a mask, virtual school classes, businesses closing, restricted travel … the list is endless.

You may have already started a journal or diary of what you have experienced. This is great. Using the ‘Future Me’ of sending an email in the future to yourself and anyone else with an email address, is another way to have the knowledge of what has happened related to the future.

The site is easy, address this future email to yourself or someone (select someone who is likely to have the same email address 2-3-5 years from now). Select a topic, such as attending or conducting virtual classes in your home. Include the dates, location, who were there and what was it like. Write about the good and bad aspects. This would be especially interesting to a child say age 11 who was part of this virtual learning. Include your point of view as the adult serving as the instructor and what the child felt. Have this email sent to you or the child say 5 years from now when he or she is 16, a teenager. Truly will be an eye-opener to both of you. Neither will really remember some of the events good or bad that happened. This future email will provide that insight.

Another good topic is to have an elderly relative, especially one who lived in an assisted living facility write or tell you as you write it, their experiences during the pandemic in the facility. That could prove to be a real eye-opener since the outside world could not visit those in these facilities.

There are so many possibilities. Plus it doesn’t have to be of 2020, maybe last year, 2019 was a fascinating year of all types of achievements. That would be great to document and read five years from now.

So take some time, this is a free service, use the prepared form to write that future email, specify a date and if you want it later public or private. Do up a couple future emails (can be the same information) but sent to different people with different emails – better chance of it being saved for sure and sent to an active email address in the future. FutureMe

Photos: Future Me, Future Self and Future Saying.

Related FamilyTree.com Blogs:

The Future to Your Ancestors

Digital Access in the Future

Writing About Family Events

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