The Family Historian
by Mary Alice Dell
Give Your Grandchild a Gift
Summer vacation often gives time for pursuit of hobbies neglected during other busier seasons of the year. For many it is a time to pursue hobbies, or to spend more time with children.
Since children do not have the demands of school activities, it is an excellent time to introduce them to the excitement of exploring their family history. It is a particularly good tool for forging a bond between grandchildren and grandparents.
Whether you are a parent or grandparent wishing to engage the younger generation in family history, you need to prepare yourself first, so you can lead the way. You need to be able to show that grandchild how to find information at home, in libraries, at a courthouse, and on line, if you plan to use the Internet. You will want the time you spend with him or her to be productive, not a frustrating failure.
Find Out How It Is Done
The secret to success in finding information is knowing where and how to look. If you do not know how to search for family records, purchase a book such as Unpuzzling Your Past by Emily Croom, on how to be successful in tracing your roots. Or check one out of the library, or go on line at www.cyndislist.com, and locate web sites on beginning genealogy. Or visit the History/Genealogy room at the Library and let a volunteer give you some guidance in beginning steps.
Now that you have the how-to knowledge, (and you don’t need to be an expert) the next step is to make sure you have some basic family information to work from. Always start with what you know. Collect all the documents, newspaper clippings, letters, diaries, photos, etc. that you have at home about yourself and your ancestors. A grandchild can then help put the documents in family folders and can help record the information on family group sheets and pedigree charts (obtainable at the Library or online). Teach your grandchild to always write down the source of the information you are recording. He may want to look at that source again, or use it to prove the information is correct to someone who challenges it.
Once the initial organization and recording is done, you and the grandchild will need to look at what you have recorded to see what information is missing, for example, are there missing birth, marriage and death dates or places? Next, carefully exam each document, photo etc. for clues as to where to seek this missing information. Contact other family members to see if they have documents giving the missing data.
Do you need to send for additional birth, marriage and death certificates? Most of the information we seek was recorded by a governmental body, either on the state or county level. You need to know what the name of the county was at the time the event was recorded. County lines changed as our population grew. A trip to the library to look at the Handybook for Genealogisst or The Redbook will tell you where to send for each document in each time period.
Let Your Grandchild Use the Internet
Your grandchild is probably adept at using the computer, so here is chance for him or her to use their skills in accessing online sources. Cyndislist, which I referred earlier, is an topical index of and links to hundreds of genealogy sites on the Internet.
www.ancestry.com, a
large database subscription site, is free at the Patrick Heath Public
Library. In addition to the digitized
and indexed
If your family is one of
Perhaps some of your family genealogy has already been done, but have all your lines been traced? Remember that by the time you list your great-grandparents, you have eight difference family surnames! Since the number of surnames doubles with each generation, you will have 16 great-great grandparents, each having as much influence on your life as your last name or maiden name ancestors. You may find that, as many have, your current surname or maiden name line did not have as many interesting ancestors as the maiden name line of your great grandmother!
When you and your grandchild find the record of your grandparents in a census or elsewhere, remember this is the great-great grandparent of the grandchild with whom you are working. As you tell that grandchild about the life of your grandparents, you are giving him a wonderful insight into history which will give it a new and personal meaning.
If you are of the senior citizen generation, you have knowledge about your family that no younger member of family has. Tracing the family history or sharing the search with a
grandchild can be one of your greatest gifts to him or her.
Published in the Boerne Star & Recorder May 18 2007 and reprinted here with their permission.