A FABULOUS FIND of 22 April 2016.<\/p>\n
Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 21 Apr 2016<\/p>\n
As genealogists, we search high and low for records left from the past.\u00a0 After recently reading an article from National Geographic<\/a>\u00a0about what is considered \u201chistorical\u201d for the purpose of digging up someone\u2019s grave, I began to think about what historical means to me.\u00a0 I\u2019m with the dictionary on this one \u2013 historical is belonging in the past.\u00a0 The past is what happened, it\u2019s done and over.\u00a0 The past can be as recent as a few minutes ago when I began writing this blog or several millennium.<\/p>\n I have a milestone birthday coming up and that probably further influenced these thoughts.\u00a0 Coupled with the recent hurricane forecast <\/a>from Colorado State University, I usually start thinking at this time of year about the \u201cwhat ifs\u201d regarding a severe storm coming my way.\u00a0 I\u2019m a tad paranoid having experienced several hurricanes and losing just about everything in one back in the 1980\u2019s.<\/p>\n Another layer regarding my thoughts is that I recently acquired a diary written by a woman in the late 1800\u2019s about her life in a rural community.\u00a0 What I love most about her writing is that it was so succinct yet so telling.\u00a0 I\u2019m making up this example to demonstrate the style:<\/p>\n 15 \u2013 Fri.- Cloudy and warm.\u00a0 Rose early to set a hen in shed.\u00a0\u00a0 Tilled garden.\u00a0 John to town to trade eggs.\u00a0 Mary Madden poorly, doc Bailey called.\u00a0 Jim and Liz \u2013 a girl.<\/p>\n There are 30+ years of entries and a wealth of genealogical gems in two lines!\u00a0 She always recorded the weather, which was a critical factor in successful farming, the family\u2019s jobs of the day, and bits and pieces about the social life of the community.\u00a0 Sometimes she included major news, such as strikes in a far off city, the country\u2019s election results and train wrecks.<\/p>\n What impressed me the most was how nonjudgmental were the writer\u2019s entries.\u00a0 When a store clerk shot a farmer she recorded the event but not the why or the sides of the story.\u00a0 She was a \u201cjust the facts\u201d kind of girl. I like that \u2013 let others form their own opinions of the events through their historical lens.<\/p>\n I decided I am going to start a diary on the day of my birthday in this format.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Simply because we don\u2019t take the age in which we\u2019re living as someday being considered worth remembering.\u00a0 Since we\u2019re living the events they are commonplace to us and thus, not important.\u00a0 That’s wrong!<\/p>\n We\u2019re also not vain so we tend to think that our lives don’t need recording.\u00a0\u00a0Don\u2019t you do a happy dance when you find a tidbit about your great great grandma?\u00a0 I was so excited when I found one of mine had won a county fair award when she was 8 for sewing.\u00a0 If I hadn\u2019t found the newspaper clipping that listed all the blue ribbon winners I would have never known.\u00a0 It told me a lot about her \u2013 that she sewed and did that well, her parents encouraged her to compete and be a part of the larger community at a young age, and that she was at the fair event.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t neglect telling your tale!\u00a0 You are important and one day, one of your descendants will appreciate that you recorded your life.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to do it in the way I\u2019ve selected.\u00a0 You can write a mini-autobiography or use a letter format.\u00a0 If you\u2019re artistic, a collage of events in your life that were important to you can be depicted.\u00a0 You might want to record and videotape yourself if you\u2019re more of an oral story teller.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter how you record your life, what matters is that you do!<\/p>\n Not sure where to start?\u00a0 Interview yourself!\u00a0 Here are some resources to get you started:<\/p>\n About.com Parenting<\/a><\/p>\n Ancestry.com<\/a><\/p>\n Deseret News<\/a><\/p>\n Family Search<\/a><\/p>\n Family Tree Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n You can see that many of the questions are redundant.\u00a0 I really like FamilySearch.org\u2019s approach, 52 questions \u2013 one a week.\u00a0 You can do this!\u00a0 Take the challenge!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A FABULOUS FIND of 22 April 2016. Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 21 Apr 2016 As genealogists, we search high and low for records left from the past.\u00a0 After recently reading an article from National Geographic\u00a0about what is considered \u201chistorical\u201d for the purpose of digging up someone\u2019s grave, I began to think about what historical … Continue reading “The Importance of Recording Your History”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[281,280,282],"class_list":["post-298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archiving","tag-archiving","tag-diary","tag-interview-questions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=298"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":300,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions\/300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}