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Ancesteral Pastimes
I've been doing genealogy for over 12 years and I love it so much. I enjoy nothing better than taking a long drive to a old cemetary and walking through the grounds taking in the beautiful old stones with elaborate carvings and scrolls. The poetry that loved ones have had placed on the stones will move you to tears as this is a last ditch effort to tell the loved one how they feel for all the world to see.
When doing this please be sure to wear a good quality shoe for comfort and to take along a lunch and something to drink,make sure someone knows where you are heading. I always prefer to have another go along with me. Take notebooks,pens,camera and so forth. It maybe a good idea to also take along a hoe just in case the cemetary is over grown from neglect as many of the old cemetaries are as we don't want to get snake bit.
One of the most loving things you can do is to do your family tree for your children. Right now they may not appreciate it but when mother and father are gone they will cherish it. My girls didn't want anything to do with"dead people" when I started this all those years ago,but now with both in their 20's and 30's they are more interested in it and my 24 year old has started helping me read old cemetaries.
When starting out with your ancestors start with yourself and then your parents,get as much information as you can. You will go back from your parents to your grandparents,great grandparents and so forth. After you have got as much info as they can tell you now is the time to start gathering your "documented proof". What this is are things such as birth and death certificates,old land records,marriage licence,family photos,pictures of the headstones of the deceased,baptism records,passports,Ellis Island records or anything else to get this proof.
There is always going to be one or two in the family that doesn't want to talk about the past,the reason maybe silly to you but to the relative it may bring back painful memories that they just want left in the past. Sometimes you can get the information you need if you know before hand that a relative may not discuss the past by asking them first about their childhood,sometimes thinking back about something they enjoyed at that time is all you need to get them talking about it. If all else fails you could ask another relative what they know about the person. Make sure to get a mini recorder to do this as it is easier to get the living record and better to do your notes with later and of course once that relative has passed on you have that to enjoy for years to come.
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Copyright © 2007 Kim Luther. All Rights Reserved