A Family History

The lights are finally on, and your life is getting back to normal, but wasn't it fun to talk about all those family members and their eccentricities? Telling stories about the family, drawing a family crest and discussing where your families came from don't just have to be power outage activities.
You started by creating a modern family crest and sprinkling the final product with family pictures, so why not go the extra steps and do a full family history. It's a great way for your entire family to connect and for you all to learn about where you came from and who was there before you. Drawing a family tree is a great idea, but compiling a family history tells the story of your family - in words and pictures - so that future generations will be able to look back and say, "This is how I got here!"

Most of us already know something about our family history, so start the research with your existing knowledge. You know your parents, grandparents and probably have heard tales of your great-grandparents, so YOU are a good place to start. One of the great advantages of a family history is that it is ongoing and as events occur you can add to it to make it a complete record of your branch of the family.

Write down pertinent information on yourself and your immediate family and pull together important documents such as birth (and death) certificates, wedding and birth announcements, Christmas cards, (and the informative enclosed Christmas letters) and of course photos. Begin compiling all of these documents and photos so that you can create a genealogy photo book to share with your family. My cousin just had a baby, so I am compiling as much information for him as possible about our side of the family and getting it ready to put into a photo book for Christmas.

Then continue with all the members of your immediate family – siblings and their children - and finally move to extended families if you have the inclination. Have your kids talk to kids their ages and get their information, while you tackle the adults.

Be sure to ask these other family members about themselves, family stories, places and dates. You probably have many cousins. Some of them may have family stories you have never heard or different versions of stories you have heard, or may know facts about ancestors that you do not. Email those who are far away and tell them what you are doing. I did and got a really long response from a cousin whom I have never met, who told me all about her family and her 11 siblings. I sent these tidbits to my cousins and this started a lot of emailing back and forth with news from each side of the family.

Creating a family history is not only fun and informative, but it reveals all sorts of interesting stories about your relatives – and can surprise you too, when you find out to whom you are connected.