Every family has one

We laugh about this person. Sometimes we wish they'd just stop it.

Since I've started cleaning out my junk room, AKA future family history room, I'm so grateful for this person.

The running joke in our family is about all the pictures my sister-in-law, Joan, takes at every event and every non-event.

As I go through all the pictures, the truth is, if it weren't for Joan, I'd be done with sorting the photographs for the last 40 years. Thank goodness she clicks even when we aren't ready for her to push the shutter button.

Does she catch all of us at our best? Not even close. But she catches us at our most real moments. Those moments we want to hide from the world. Even from ourselves.

Currently, I have the title of family historian, the genealogist, in the family.

The truth is, Joan has made my job so much easier. All the photographs that she's taken over the years helps document the family relationships.

From The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy by Val D. Greenwood, "Genealogy: That branch of history which involves the determination of family relationships. This is not done by copying but rather by research."

From the same book; Research: An investigation aimed at the discovery and the interpretation of facts and also the revision of accepted theories in light of new facts.

Because of the thousands upon thousands of pictures that Joan has taken, she's helped me to breath life into all of our lives that will live on even after we're gone.

Thank you, Joan, for all you've shared with our family. You are the family photographer. You capture all those moments we would have forgotten if it weren't for you. That is even more important than what I do.