Family Stories

Good morning, yesterday I was reminded of my genealogy work and the things I have learned over the years. One important thing everyone who researches their family tree learns one way or another is to document everything even the facts from old family stories. Some of these have been passed down from generation to generation.

I like to think of these stories from generations past as a stepping stone to gathering documents and records to verify the information within the story. I also like to think of these stories as a

story passed along person to person in the old fashioned game called “Telephone” that we use to play as children. The story usually changed with almost every telling of the story. In the end when the last child told the story it had changed even if it was only by one or two facts.

 Our family stories that are passed down to us are likely to have changed a little too in its retelling of it. If you don’t take that into consideration before you start using the stories facts to do your research you can find yourself running into brick walls that will be quite frustrating. Now I am not saying to disregard these wonderful stories. They are valuable and precious. They are unique to your family and they should continue to be treasured. I am just saying that mistakes can be made during a story’s retelling.

For example, years ago when I first started to do genealogy, I had heard a family story and decided it was time to research that particular branch of our family. When I started to research the family using the facts from the story, I found only brick walls in my way. I could not find some of the family members. It all came down to my assuming all of the story’s facts were right.

It was all because I took the story’s facts as being accurate and never questioned them that I could not overcome the brick walls. I did finally decide to broaden my search more and check out the various facts in the story.  Once I started this the information started coming in and I was able to find the family members I was looking for. Some of the facts in the story I was told were wrong.

 

So please keep in mind family stories are a family treasure as well as a great resource to have if used right.