Family History : Recording Stories

What really interests me with genealogy is the actual lives of my ancestors.  I love to dig into census records and old diaries, to fossick through local newspapers of the time, and hunt for headstones and christening records.  Talking to people about their life stories was so interesting.

I used to do a lot of research using microfiches at the public library, but now most of it is done online. 

Initially, I record what I find in a notebook before transferring it to the computer.  Over the years I have developed two ways of doing this.

The first is a timeline, and this is often added beneath the personal details on the Family Page.  It can look like this:

o    1823 described in his father’s will as being “of Falkirk, tailor”

o    1851 census records John, head of house, living at East Street, Falkirk, age 76 years, widower, ‘retired tailor’ – living with him was George BROWN, nephew, age 38, labourer, and Emily FORSYTH, servant, age 56

o    1886 grandson James Walter McKEE wrote in his memoirs that his grandfather “had a long bushy white beard that he used to stroke slowly whenever he was thinking about something”

The other method I use is in the form of a biography.  This works well if there is a lot of information or the story itself is extremely interesting.  Sometimes I use both methods together, with the timeline making up the outline of what is in the biography.

Occasionally I also write out a separate story, such as the transcription of the diary one of my grandmothers kept on her year’s journey back to the Home Country of England.

As you can see, any method that works for you is the best method to use.  And, of course, it is much easier to do this on a computer than by hand writing it all like I used to do.

Take care J

Margaret.

PART ONE of this series can be found here