Preserving Memories
Genealogy is more than just name, dates and places. The real heart of genealogy is an understanding of the time and events of the day in which our ancestors lived. With most of us celebrating the time between Thanksgiving and New Years, it is the perfect time to gather as much information as you can from the living in your family to at least grasp the life and times of those in memory.
As your family gathers during the holidays, keep pen and paper handy. You will want to start asking questions of those older living relatives about their times growing up. Encourage the older people to expand on their school days, their early growing up years and those early courting days. This latter will be of interest to the teenagers in the crowd as they think they are the only ones to ever try dating and that first “puppy love”.
My granddaughters began questioning their great-grandfather the other day about the times in his school days. He is ninety-four years old and they were shocked that he had to gather ten gallons of water each day before school from two different springs. One five gallon bucket was for drinking [iron water] and the second spring supplied the washing water which is sulphur water. The farm was fifty acres at the time and the two springs were on opposite ends of the property. Then, he walked about a mile and a half to school for the morning, coming home for lunch and then back in the afternoon. This made him walking about six miles just to go to school. There was no need to go to the gym after all of this walking each day. My grandchildren sat in rapt attention as he talked about those days.
After a huge meal, drag out those boxes of photographs that need to be identified. Pass the photographs around the room and let everyone have a chance to identify the children in the various group photographs. Also, let them try to identify the place of each unknown photograph. You will not get them all identified, but you might get a clue as to who and where some of them are, or at least a good guess. Make sure that you make notes on the back of the pictures as you will forget these in time. I always suggest pencil as this can be changed when positive identification is given. One of the fun things to do is to take the photographs that you know for certain and then compare with those of unknown origin. When we compare, it is amazing what happens.
At the end of the day, you might just find that some of the young people have gotten a glimpse of the world of genealogy. If you find one that is interested, you will find this is a real jewel in the crowd as you might have someone to pass your research onto them in the future. Nothing is sadder than to spend your lifetime in research and there is no one who cares about it. I am reminded of the time I received a telephone call one afternoon from some people I knew nothing about. I knew their mother and they wanted to get rid of all of her research. I went to the address given and before I was out of the car, one of the sons had the trunk of the car up and six boxes were put into my car. There were six children, all about middle age and none of them wanted this material. There were original photographs of their family back to about 1900, original documents and beautiful charts filled out perfectly. I have kept the files together in hopes that someday one of the grandchildren will want them
By just asking these simple questions and looking at photographs, you have just gathered a little more knowledge of the life and times of those who lived in earlier times. You have also opened a new world for the generations to come as they experience life as it was lived in a former time. What a wonderful gift you have given to the next generation. Genealogy is built one generation after another. It never ends, but multiplies.
Happy Hunting