Before you start, you must have a vision of ”Why are you researching your family history?” Your answer to this question will determine some key factors in doing your research because then you must decide your focal point and your goals. You can not get there unless you have a destination in mind. You may have to change your goal at some point, however, having a goal helps you focus on the steps to get there.
When I asked fellow genealogists this question, most said, “At first, they were curious about who their ancestors were and where the family came from,” or “they wanted to verify a story about an ancestor.” However, all told me that once they started finding their information, they added the goals of sharing their results with their family and saving the documents and stories for future generations.
I have always wanted to learn more about my family’s history, and I have had a similar transformation as other researchers. My journey of discovery began after my parents and grandparents had died. This was a handicap, but I soon forgot it after I found my first documents. I quickly became addicted to genealogy research. The thrill of seeing my grandparents and great-grandparents on passenger lists and marriage records changed my priorities from not just satisfying my curiosity but also adding a promise to pass along the documents and stories I find to my children, grandchildren, and future generations of grandchildren.
Once I began compiling the information from oral history and documents, I realized that family histories are more than piles of documents that list parents, grandparents, and their ancestors. Our family histories are made up of information you find in the family stories, pictures, and documents. I became more excited about my family as I saw how these pieces of information were related and came together like a jigsaw puzzle. I also discovered that my initial view of my family changed quickly as the information and stories flowed from the research. As I found more information, my family history gave me a greater closeness to my ancestors and their lives. Identifying who, what, and where those shown in family photo albums helped tell a story. Interpreting the facts shown on the various documents and seemingly explaining their relationship to the lives of my ancestors brought their memories back to life. This is important because only a few people enjoyed doing the research and interpreting the documents. However, most family members enjoy reading the stories. The task of the genealogist or family historian is to find a way to save their family history in a format that can be enjoyed by most family members.
Uncovering our history should remind us of our roots. Writing about the major events in the lives of our ancestors helps us and our descendants understand how our ancestors affected our lives. All of our immigrant ancestors made significant contributions to America’s history. History books may not mention them, but their efforts were needed to grow America. Think about the work that was needed by the early settlers to clear the land and establish their first homes. Think about the many immigrants that were needed to fuel the industrial growth in America. All immigrants contributed in some way to the growth of the country. These stories are essential to document and save for future generations of our families.
My initial attempts to share my research at family gatherings were disappointing, and they had a lot to do with how I organized my research and what I shared. These early efforts included using a ring binder with tabs for each ancestor, including copies of the documents that I had found and printouts of the various genealogical reports available on genealogy software.
My organization consisted of sorting and filing documents by name and placing them into a folder for each person. I had four drawers available and had filled only one when I discovered this was a very wasteful system. The filing system was time-consuming to save documents and not efficient when retrieving data when doing research. Also, the system did not produce information in a format that family members could easily understand. Most relatives were not interested in reviewing documents and charts. They found the documents complex to read and the charts difficult to understand. They wanted to read the stories and not the data.
To improve the experience at future family gatherings, I tried to find a better format to present the material. I reviewed various lineage software reports, but I could not find any that told the stories my family wanted to see. Genealogy research should go beyond finding documents and filling in names and dates on charts. I needed a simple process that would make my research efforts more efficient and create pages of information that could be read and understood by all family members. I wanted my research to become faster and more accurate and also to have my family enjoy their family history.
I realized that I wanted to save my research in a better format that my family could read and understand easily. The pages that I leave behind have to contain the stories in my family history. A pile of pictures and an album of pictures could depict many aspects of family history, but they must be interpreted, and their relationships should be written down.
Writing down the stories and the relationships helps us understand our heritage and the lives of our ancestors. After sharing my results with other family members, I get a sense that our family has become more connected. This method will also preserve the memories of our ancestors for future generations. Creating a written family history should also help future generations feel more connected to our ancestors. Writing a family history should also preserve what our efforts uncovered. My goal is to leave my research in a format that future researchers can fully understand what I found and use it as a starting point to expand it further.
My research should preserve the accuracy of the stories as they are now. Family historians cannot procrastinate. The longer you wait, the more likely you will lose older family members who die or suffer memory loss before they can pass along their valuable family memories.
All have family stories that give insights into the lives of our ancestors. Some are entertaining, others are celebrations of our cultural heritage, and others are more historical in nature. They all should be saved so they can accurately pass down to future generations.
You may find it hard to believe that our family history is essential to save. You should consider that all of our immigrant ancestors contributed to America’s history, and you should preserve their stories for our grandchildren. It is essential to understand that someone in your family should capture and save the oral histories now before the stories are further diluted or lost altogether. The farmers and the factory workers contributed their efforts to the growth of America alongside all of the names listed in the history books. Our family histories should give clues about their roles, and this will help us understand our roots.
Our collection of family stories, photos, and documents is incomplete unless someone writes an explanation of how they are related. This creates our unique family history and is the core of why someone needs to write them down for the enjoyment of our children and grandchildren.
You can not be afraid to begin. Concentrate on finding one story and then another by doing the research. Finding the small pieces will make the task easier and will be fun. Eventually, the small pieces will begin to fit together, and the overall story of our family history will appear.
My focus in the early stages of writing my family history was to research and identify the stories that my relatives, documents, and pictures told. My focus was not on writing a family history but on documenting what I found. My research notes and documentation could be the basis for a family history, but they were written to help with my research and to help share the information with my family. I did, in fact, create a family history as the stories came together almost by accident. This method put very little pressure on me to produce such an important document. There was a lot of work to do the research and keep my notes updated, but the final document seemed to emerge, and I cried out to share it with everyone.
My genealogy efforts have become a treasure to my family due to the organization of the information I found and the readability of my research notes. In its current format, I am optimistic it will endure and be enjoyed by future generations. It can help us understand our heritage both here in the U.S. and where our ancestors came from. It lets us gain knowledge and appreciation for our ancestors and their lives.
Whatever your goals are, do the work so it can be organized and saved for future generations. Get the details and do the work so that it’s worth saving.
Do it now!
Steve Szabados Genealogy 