“I’ve always felt that family stories bring our ancestors to life. Without stories, our ancestors are names, dates, and locations.”
JJ McC
“I wondered, during most of my childhood, if incredible family stories told by my parents could be true. When my parents died, I found several boxes of letters written by mom to dad and vice versa, from 1937 to 1945. As I read each handwritten sheet, I felt the shared love between them and the excitement of discovering a new country so different from their own. A timeline of events began to emerge and I found the stories chronicled in the letters. They were all true!
The letters and stories became a book as I “met” mom and dad in a new way, through their letters when they were young and in love with each other, the world at large, and the God who made them. Many people have said how much they have enjoyed reading the book. And so, the stories live on.
Every family has their own unique story that might answer some questions you hold deeply in your heart. Researching your family story might be like a puzzle, but when every piece is put in place, you will have a new understanding of how you became the person you are, and how precious your family is.”
Harriet Claiborne, author of Postmarked Bombay: True Tales of a Texan in British Colonial India, 1937-1945
“Genealogists tally things. They tally children, goats, husbands, wives, spoons….
A person’s history is more than just BMDB (born, married, died, buried–or “carried, married and buried” as we say in my church). “Tallying” or “counting up” things can help us add the interesting nitty-gritty to those events. Sometimes our 21st-century culture can get in the way of our true understanding of our ancestors’ lives. We must “live where they lived” in our minds to truly represent them to future generations.
As the family’s “crazy old aunt or uncle” who is always asking questions, you may also feel the obligation to be the “crazy old aunt with all those charts and stuff.” The more you know about what you find, the more you can make ancestors’ lives resonate with the younger set.
Pat Dunbar, author of DADDY WAS A LORD OF THE REALM? NO, BUT GRAMPA WAS A TENNIS PRO!
