Tracing your family ancestry has been around for many generations.
Originally, it was done by the matriarch of the family, as she recorded the births, marriages and deaths of all of her relatives and close friends.
Frequently, these records were kept in the family Bible or a scrapbook.
Fortunately, many of these books have been passed down from generation to generation.
If you're lucky, you may be in possession of one of those rare books today.
When we first start out researching our genealogy, we frequently start with these rare books as our initial source.
These books provide an excellent source of information about our families.
In many cases, we find not only important facts about our family we also find newspaper clippings, old photographs, wedding invitations, and family reunion invitations to name a few.
These items provide us with important clues and valuable stories that bring our family history to life.
Take the time to review each of these items to understand and properly document them.
Once we have recorded all of the information that is contained in these books, we start interviewing close family members for other information that they might have.
It is a good idea to take your family tree charts and notes with you to these interviews.
The notes you've made will help your family visualize the branch of the family tree that you are tracing.
Be sure and display all of the source information that you have found to date, during the interview.
This information may help trigger new stories and additional details that will further enhance your understanding of your family's past.
Be sure to ask for any additional scrapbooks, articles, old photographs that you might borrow to study in more detail.
Make sure you put this information in a separate file, carefully marked so that you can return it to the original owner, exactly as it was provided.
As soon as possible, after the interview, review the stories, documents, and photographs to try and incorporate this information into your family tree research files.
Take copies of all of the documents and photographs, and clearly mark on the back of each copy the source of the document, the date it was obtained, and the condition of the original document.
These details will be invaluable when you revisit this information, months and even years from now.
As much as we would like to believe that genealogy is the discovery of important and influential ancestors, it is in reality, a complex process of uncovering and documenting historical facts and stories.
However, as dry as that sounds, it can also be a very rewarding and challenging hobby.
Knowing that we are discovering our family's history and heritage and putting it into context for future generations makes this a very worthwhile project that our family will be able to cherish forever.
Originally, it was done by the matriarch of the family, as she recorded the births, marriages and deaths of all of her relatives and close friends.
Frequently, these records were kept in the family Bible or a scrapbook.
Fortunately, many of these books have been passed down from generation to generation.
If you're lucky, you may be in possession of one of those rare books today.
When we first start out researching our genealogy, we frequently start with these rare books as our initial source.
These books provide an excellent source of information about our families.
In many cases, we find not only important facts about our family we also find newspaper clippings, old photographs, wedding invitations, and family reunion invitations to name a few.
These items provide us with important clues and valuable stories that bring our family history to life.
Take the time to review each of these items to understand and properly document them.
Once we have recorded all of the information that is contained in these books, we start interviewing close family members for other information that they might have.
It is a good idea to take your family tree charts and notes with you to these interviews.
The notes you've made will help your family visualize the branch of the family tree that you are tracing.
Be sure and display all of the source information that you have found to date, during the interview.
This information may help trigger new stories and additional details that will further enhance your understanding of your family's past.
Be sure to ask for any additional scrapbooks, articles, old photographs that you might borrow to study in more detail.
Make sure you put this information in a separate file, carefully marked so that you can return it to the original owner, exactly as it was provided.
As soon as possible, after the interview, review the stories, documents, and photographs to try and incorporate this information into your family tree research files.
Take copies of all of the documents and photographs, and clearly mark on the back of each copy the source of the document, the date it was obtained, and the condition of the original document.
These details will be invaluable when you revisit this information, months and even years from now.
As much as we would like to believe that genealogy is the discovery of important and influential ancestors, it is in reality, a complex process of uncovering and documenting historical facts and stories.
However, as dry as that sounds, it can also be a very rewarding and challenging hobby.
Knowing that we are discovering our family's history and heritage and putting it into context for future generations makes this a very worthwhile project that our family will be able to cherish forever.
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