Should Genealogists Concentrate on Facts—or Family Stories?

Which do you think your relatives will remember better? Facts? Or family stories?

They will probably remember stories easier, but they’ll need facts to keep the story straight and keep it in perspective.

As an exercise, I jotted down what I remembered of a story I’d heard about 40 years before about one of my ancestors. Some of the story helped me recall a few facts: A female Harshbarger ancestor immigrated from Europe to North America. After her baby girl died, the mother fell—or maybe jumped—into the ocean while holding a small cast-iron pot. Somehow, survived.

Thankfully, I remembered where to look for the facts.

A History of the Descendents [sic] of Jacob and Maria Eva Harshbarger of Switzerland, prepared by the Harshbarger Association and published in 1915, set me straight.[1] The style of writing has changed since 1915, but the facts remain the same:

“In their journey across the ocean they touched at Portsmouth, England, and remained a few days. While in Holland their first child was born and named Mary Elizabeth. During the voyage it dies from smallpox. Weighted with sand bags it is lowered from the ship’s side and lies buried in the Atlantic. This our first death, is the first child of the first known couple. The mother came near following the child, for overcome with grief for her child, she fell overboard. A sailor, named Ebersole, seeing her blue linen dress underneath the water seized a hook, thrust it into her garments and drew her up. A moment’s delay and none of us would have been, or such slender threads hand the destiny of things. She came up clinging to a little iron pot which she happened to have in her hand when she fell. This vessel she sacredly kept for 60 years, and then bequeathed it [to a relative].”

Not only do family stories pique our interest in our ancestors, stories sometimes build bridges that connect us to one another. The 1915 Harshbarger historian(s) continued:

“A few years ago [probably about 1905?], a young man in Iowa, in a social gathering, told the story of the little pot. A stranger with surprise heard it, for it was his great grandmother who fell overboard. He sought the young man’s home and was surprised to find a first cousin of whose existence he had known nothing. Here the little pot had rested a quarter of a century.”

The written material filled in facts I’d long forgotten: Jacob and Maria immigrated for religious freedom, presumably holding views of the Dunkards, who believed in baptism by immersion. They sailed about 1754. Baby Mary Elizabeth was about a year old. Mother, Maria Eva Petra Harshbarger, and father, Jacob Harshbarger, were both born in or near Basle, Switzerland about 1725. Therefore, they were in their mid- to late twenties as they voyaged to a new life.

After rereading the story in the Harshbarger book, I traced back seven generations in my family tree and found Eva and Jacob.

If I’d never heard the family lore, I wouldn’t have looked for Eva among my ancestors. But the snippet of her life’s story made her come alive for me. I wanted to know more about her when I began researching my family tree and writing family stories and histories.

Bottom line, I believe we should concentrate on finding and sharing our family’s stories and facts.

• What do you need to become more comfortable writing your family stories?
• Are you more comfortable researching facts or writing family members’ memories and stories?
• Which is easier for you and your family members to remember—facts or stories?

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[1] William L Anderson, A History of the Descendents [sic] of Jacob and Maria Harshbarger of Switzerland, Prepared by the Secretary of the Harshbarger Association, by Request of the Family, 1915, photocopy of pages 1-111 in possession of author.