Family Historian--A Labor of Love

This post is an article published several years ago in The Best Times, a newspaper for seniors in the Kansas City area. I have changed it a bit and added to it, as well.

I’m the Family Historian for both sides of our family. We didn’t hold an election that I won. The job fell naturally to me because I’m a writer and maybe because I am the eldest of four.  It might also be the fact that I care deeply that our history is passed on to future generations.

    

You needn’t be a professional writer to take on this important task. All that’s necessary is the desire to preserve the stories and history of your family and the ability to string words together. Write it like you’d tell the story sitting around the dining room table after a Sunday dinner. That's the place where we learn a great deal of our family history. 

   

You don’t have to start at the beginning. Anywhere is fine. Write a story, print it and put it in a notebook. Then write another. Chronological order is not
necessary. Little by little, your notebook will become fat with stories about your grandparents, your mother and father, your siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

    

A good place to trigger memories of your family tales is in old photo albums. Dig them out, dust them off and leaf through the pages. Memories will come flooding back. If you’re lucky, there will be names and dates on some or all of the pictures. If not, guess at the time period. You’ll come close.

    

Interview the older members of your family, even neighbors who lived nearby. Some folks get so enthused they end up doing research at the library or online to help them learn more about relatives in the distant past. They find out when Great-Grandpa came to America through ships’ records, or where someone lived by checking the census records. There are websites that will help you determine dates and more. The one I like is Family Search, but there are others. Some are free while others require payment. Family Search is free and sponsored by the Mormon church. But the Family Historian needn’t go that far. Use your own knowledge and what you learn from other relatives to write the stories. You’ll still have plenty.

    

Someone might say that their family never did anything important enough to write about. I bet they did because the little everyday things are important to those who care about the people involved. They aren't celebrities most likely, but they are your family, and that's pretty important.

    

For example, my father’s paternal grandmother came to Chicago from Quebec. She never learned to speak English. She spoke nothing but French. She made lace, then used it to fashion elegant baby clothing which she sold to Marshall Field's famed Chicago department store. It’s something I’d like my children and grandchildren to know. She probably rode the streetcar in the early 1900's with her precious baby dresses carefully wrapped, ready to sell to the Buyer in the Infant Department at the store. That last part is supposition, but if you mention that she 'probably' or 'may have, then it's alright to use it. 

   

My maternal grandfather was taken out of school at age nine to work in a coal mine. He never finished school and spent the remainder of his working years in the mines. My mother walked to the mine after school and waited for his shift to end. They’d walk home together and talk over the day. The fact that my mother met her dad and they walked home together may not be important, but it shows their relationship, that she loved him enough to spend this end of day time with him on a regular basis.

My husband's maternal grandfather, a German immigrant,  had a unique way of naming his two youngest children. It was so interesting that I wrote a fictionalized version that has been published. The No-Name Sisters can be read here.

    

Three stories from both sides of our family, but I refuse to let them fade away. Be the Family Historian for this Labor of Love, or find someone in your family to handle the job. It's your family history and it deserves to live on. What a legacy for you to leave! It is not necessary for this person to be a professional writer. Anyone can do it. Also, give consideration to the Family Historian in the next generation should be. Enlist their help now to give them a little experience and to help them develop a love for keeping your Family History.