*Signing* Your Layouts

I posted this in the Oral History thread at Heritage Scrap but thought it was worth repeating here also:

One thing that we should have talked about but I forgot this week, is *signing* your layouts or journaling. I remembered when I saw Jan's lovely series of three ancestors. She put her name and date at the end of the journaling. We all know right now who made the layouts, why, what they mean, and so forth. But it won't be long until that info is not known any longer.

Also, when doing a layout for a scrapping site, I find myself addressing my journaling to the scrapping community. I'll say something like *My daughter playing with her high school band*. How will that sound in the future to people who don't know me? They won't know who the person is that is referred to by "My" and they won't know who "My daughter" is either. And what high school is it?? We need to remember that our layouts will not always be in the place that we think they will reside forever. They may get separated from an album or even get away from the family of the subject of the layout. We need to keep that all in mind while doing the layout. I often sign my journaling with my name and date.

I realize that we don't often do that when posting to a public internet site because of security reasons. However, when we finish a layout for ourselves or private viewing only, or when we get ready to print the layout, we should make sure that more specific identifying information is included.