Finding your roots and where you came from is part of what makes you who you are. It’s one of those things that when you start digging, one fact leads to two more and so on and so on. A lot of it is the history of your past but, at some point, it becomes more about where you are now and for all those that come after you because of you.
It takes dedication to do the digging, not to mention time and patience. I have the time but not the patience. I am so fortunate to have Sarah and Jayne, two dear friends who love digging into the past, help me uncover mine. They have made great strides this past year, re-connecting me to a nephew. It has been great.
There are usually two camps when it comes to family history; either folks are eager to find out more or they are content to let sleeping dogs lie, as they say, and leave the past in the past. There is no right nor wrong, it’s all a matter of how you feel.
Even if you are on the side of those that prefer to let it be, there are a couple of reasons why you may still want to have a record of past generations.
GENETICS. There have been a lot of strides lately in studying genetics and how they relate to our health. Many of our diseases can be traced back through generations. By following family health trends, we can monitor our health more closely. Some illnesses can be detected early, providing a better quality of life.
For this reason, when going back through records, it’s important to not only record the dates of death, but also the cause of death. Any other health records that are found should be part of a person’s genealogical record.
FUTURE GENERATIONS. No matter how connected we are to family, everyone is an individual with his/her own thoughts and ideas. This goes for knowing the past too. Even though you may not care about your past, it doesn’t mean that future generations won’t. Think of your kids and grandkids, they may want to know and, with each generation where nothing is recorded, it becomes harder and harder to put the pieces together.
Usually every family has a historian, someone who likes history and thinks it’s cool. It may be a niece/nephew or a second or third generation member. Whoever shows the slightest interest in preserving family history, be sure they get that little nudge they need to pursue it. Someone down the line will thank you for it.
LISTEN TO YOUR PARENTS/GRANDPARENTS. I can’t count the times that my dad would talk about living on a riverboat when he was little and his parents worked on the boat that dredged the river or later spending summers on the farm with his Amish grandparents. I would listen to the stories but never thought to pin him down as to what river they dredged or where exactly the farm was located. I always thought I would get the details later but I ran out of later.
The point is to listen when your elders tell their life stories. You may not care at the moment, but later on those stories become treasured bits of family history.
Ask questions. Know where your parents/grandparents were born, where they worked, how many siblings they had and anything else you can think of.
DON’T LEAVE INFORMATION TO CHANCE. You always think that you have time for questions like this but time has a way of slipping away. Then, when family members are older, sometimes it’s touchy to bring up subjects like their past life because you don’t want them to think they haven’t much time left.
Then too, time has a way of robbing memories. Bits and pieces are forgotten or, worse yet, facts get twisted as people age.
HOW TO GET STARTED. Holidays and family gatherings are great opportunities to get information. Not only do you have more than one family member there usually, but once someone gets remembering, it creates a snowball effect and aunts, uncles and others chime in with their stories.
Just ask. Maybe after dinner, ask Uncle Clyde how he started playing guitar. If you play horseshoes, ask if it has always been a family tradition. Ask Aunt Mary how she started making her famous butterscotch pie if the recipe is a secret. Any question will get the ball rolling.
A little pocket recorder is great for recording information. Sometimes it is hard to take notes, especially when everyone gets on the band wagon and starts contributing all at once. You can listen to recordings over and over.
Memory books are also great tools also. There are literally dozens of them that can be purchased online. Most are especially tailored for certain family members like mothers, fathers, etc. They have prompts for certain questions and then the recipient records the answers. Questions like “what is your favorite childhood memory” or “how did you and Grandpa meet?”
Once the person completes the book, it is to be returned to the giver. Thus, it becomes a gift twice!
If you are really creative and ambitious, a simple notebook will do. You make up the questions and design the book how you want. Questions can be individually tailored this way.
The important thing is to get the information recorded. In this day of technology, there are countless ways to share the information. Of course, there are programs like Family Tree Maker and Ancestry.com but It can also be as simple as putting the info on thumb drives and sharing them with all or e-mailing it to family members.
Get all the information you can, even little tidbits that seem unimportant at the time, and save it for posterity. In that way, a piece of you will always live on and your story will never end.
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