Doing Family History
Just about everyone has some family papers somewhere — maybe just a photo or shoebox-full, or the birth certificates or wills of one’s forebears. There might also be letters, diaries, journals or other papers. Or there might be an attic full of what some people call ‘junk’, but which to any avid historian or archivist could be a treasure chest full of gold.
The question is what to do with it all. Firstly, please don’t put your faith in today’s technology and think that papers can be scanned and then the originals thrown away. No. What happens when today’s scanning technology is superseded by something new and your old scans are unreadable, the laptop has died and the software no longer available? Keep the originals. Keep them dry, without plastic or staples or rubber bands or ring folders or anything that might rust or decay. Just paper, in preferably acid-free cartons, will last best, no matter what.
Secondly, think about what sort of outcome you want for your family’s pasts. Is there a particular puzzle you want resolved? Do you wish your children were interested but know they are not? Do you have a dream of a little book or image collection? Would you simply be happy if your family papers were kept somewhere safely without you having to be bothered about them?
Thirdly, grab your oldies immediately! Think through who are the oldest members of your family and track them down. Sit with them over innumerable cups of tea (or favoured tipple) and take them through the unlabelled photos you have, ask them who is who, what are they doing in this picture, why did great grandmother leave her home town, and much more. Record those chats and take notes. Grab those memories before the most basic deadline of all hits and that source is lost.
Fourthly, think about bringing in some professional help. We know where the bodies are buried — or at least where to find out if and where and when they were buried. We can solve puzzles, track down sources and people, and tell you things you never knew were possible to know. We can produce records to interest your grandchildren, skipping that pesky first generation. We can research and write those books and repair and preserve those images. We can advise where diverse family records might find a proper home. We might even be able to bring your family back into one piece again, no matter the scale of change over time and place.
With apologies to Tolstoy: Family histories are never all alike; every family history can be done in its own way.