Begat Chat

Kimberly Powell has come up with 10 good ideas for New Years Resolutions for Genealogy. Now that we're 19 days into 2006 and might have already given up on some of our other resolutions, maybe we should set one or two for our genealogy work. I have picked my 3 favorites and plan to work on them this year.

1. Interview a Relative

One thing many of us postpone until it is too late is talking to our own family members about our shared heritage. Now is the time to get in touch with those relatives you’ve been meaning to contact. If you are fortunate enough to have older members in the family, approach them first. Some of them may have information about the family that can’t be found elsewhere. If you have already spoken to your parents and grandparents, then extend your research net to include extended family such as brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins.

My husband has a grandmother about to turn 95 years old...so I think she might be one of these older members in the family who I need to interview.

5. Label & Store Your Family Photos

Most of us have piles of precious family photographs sitting in piles or boxes waiting to be labeled, organized, put into scrapbooks, digitized, etc. Don't let another year go by with those photos fading both from light and from people's memories. Get together with relatives and identify as many people as you can and label those pictures. Be sure to use a photo-safe marking pencil or pen! If you have access to a scanner then consider digitizing the photos onto CD-ROM to preserve them indefinitely. Even if you don't have time to create scrapbooks and really get the photos organized right now, make sure you get them out of old envelopes and shoeboxes and into archival quality plastic sleeves or acid-free photo boxes before they are lost forever. Make copies of important photographs and other important documents and share them with another family member. The recipient will no doubt enjoy the gift, and a second copy will help to ensure that these precious photos will not be lost forever in the event of an unforeseen disaster.

I am in the process of trying to attach a photo to as many people as I can in my genealogy file.

8. More Than Names & Dates

Sometimes in the rush to get our lines as far back as we can we forget to take the time to learn more about the people our ancestors were and the times they lived in. Take time this year to record family stories, either electronically or on paper before this oral history is lost forever. Go out and find at least one additional record on each of your direct ancestors, choosing a record which will hopefully tell you more about them than you already know. Census records include interesting information such as your ancestors' occupation, education level and property value. Wills and probate records can provide you with all sorts of fascinating information including debts, friends and even the bed covers and pots and pans your ancestors owned. Tax rolls, immigration records and land records are other good sources for information about the lives of your ancestors. You can also chart your ancestor's life against a historical timeline and learn more about wars, plagues, crop shortages, big storms and other noteworthy things your ancestor may have experienced.

This one goes along with interviewing a relative and it's definitely an important reminder for me. When I first started genealogy research all I cared about was finding names. Now I want to go back and put some meat into my file with stories and pictures.