Ellen Thompson Jennings: Dealing With Your Scary Box

You know the one I mean. I call it the “Scary Box”. The one on the top shelf of the closet or buried under years of other “I’ll get to this later” bins. It might be cardboard, plastic, or even an old suitcase. It’s full of photos—hundreds of them, maybe thousands. Some curled. Some stuck together. Some unlabeled. All filled with memories. And every time you open it, you’re hit with a wave of emotion and a big dose of guilt. “I need to do this.” “Where do I even start?” Take a breath. Today, we’re not going to finish the box—we’re just going to start. And that’s the most important step of all.

Ellen Thompson-Jennings is the self-proclaimed Family History Hound. As a teen, Ellen interviewed her great-grandmother, asking her questions she’d found in a book. Ellen worked on her genealogy for a time, but then life got busy, so she kept the answers her Nana gave her and saved them over 25 years. Then 20+ years ago, Ellen realized she had the time. That’s when her journey started.

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