Book Can Help You Compile Information
As our self-appointed family historian, I want to collect more than my ancestors’ statistics. I want to compile stories of them, as well as those of my living family members. On my Family Tree Maker genealogy program, there’s a More button on each individual’s entry that takes you to facts (statistics) and notes (the etc. of our lives). In the notes, I’ve begun entering the cute things my grandkids say along with special accomplishments.
They might not make it to the surname book I plan to write one day, but I can print them out for their memoirs.
In notes of one great-great-grandfather, a farmer, I’ve included the crops he planted and harvested one year, and how many acres of unimproved land he had yet to break, all taken from census sheets. How wonderful it would be to have a diary of his wife.
To make sure you have stories of family members still living, today is the day to make arrangements to interview your parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. Believe me, you’ll be so sorry if you don’t get their stories down in some fashion.
Tape recording family stories will help you get a wonderful, descriptive narration of their lives, in their own words. Tape recorders intimidate some people, but after a few minutes of talking, they’re most apt to forget it as recalling stories becomes more fun.
Don’t short shrift the printed word, however. The stories need to be transcribed. For one thing, tapes don’t last forever and the technology to play them a dozen years from now well may be outmoded. And, voices fade on old tapes, making transcription a must.
Published genealogies and family histories comprise one of the most significant compiled sources, say Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking in “The Source, a Guidebook of American Genealogy.” To prepare for an interview, Szucs and Luebking advise us to prepare well: Know what topics you’ll discuss.
Compile a list of questions, but let the person you’re interviewing stray from the subject - but not too far. (Booklets with suggested questions to help ease the question-and-answer session are available.) Know your machinery and take along extra tapes and batteries.
And, the women warn, transcribe the tapes immediately.
To find published genealogies that may contain your ancestors, look into the surname catalog of the Family History Library, which identifies some 60,000 North American genealogies; and check with catalogs from the Library of Congress.
Volunteers at any of the Spokane area’s Family History branches can help you with their surname index. For the Library of Congress, address requests to: Library of Congress; Local History and Genealogy Reading Room; Thomas Jefferson Annex; 10 First St. S.E.; Washington, DC 20540. The telephone number is (202) 287-5537.
Formula 8870 will help you decipher the detailed dates found on some tombstones: Your ancestor’s headstone might say Died May 6, 1889, at the age of 71 years, 7 months and 9 days.
To unlock the puzzle, write down year 1889, then month 05, and finally day 06, which gives you 18890506. Next put down the age 71 (years), 07 (month) and 09 (day), which equals 710709.
Subtract the two numbers: 18890506 minus 710709, which equals 18179797. From this number, subtract 8870; 18179797, minus 8870 equals 18170927 and there’s the birth date: Sept. 27, 1817.
Isn’t that incredible?
Do you use a laptop computer when researching in Salt Lake City? If so, drop me a note. I’d love to do an article on the subject sometime soon.