Memory Lane

When you are thinking of genealogy and family it is easy to get stuck with the facts, births, deaths, marriages and children, but it is important to look deeper. You need to look into the memories that people have. It will help your family story become more real, instead of just being a book of dry facts. People will enjoy reading your family history and not just the basic facts that most people have in the books they create about their families.

If you want to make your family history come alive you need to interview people in your family and find out their life story. You can talk to them about their favorite memories, places where they lived and friend they had. You can also find out from them memories they have of other people in the family whether they are alive or dead. This will help your story become more alive, it will make a rich and detailed story instead of a dry and boring history, just stating the facts.

The more you talk to people in your family the more information you will find out. You can talk to the same person many times and get different stories each time. It is mindful to realize that some of the stories will be repeated but if you are patient and wait you will find out new information and sometimes there will be information in the stories that will help you trace your history.

One of my favorite stories is about my grandfather. He was a great man, a farmer who raised his children after his wife died in a time when it wasn’t done. When he was younger he worked at a paint factory and loved it. He had the eye for mixing the right colors together and not get mud. But over time from the fumes in the plant and overuse, he developed colored blindness. This meant he had to leave a job he loved, but did he let it get him down, no. He was a man who took care of his family any way he had to and instead of getting discouraged he went out and bought some land and started farming like his family had done for centuries. This is the kind of stories you are looking for. Something that will make your history full and intriguing, a wealth of information future generations will enjoy reading about because they never knew the man or woman in your story.