Diving into your family history can uncover a lot of forgotten details and some interesting facts. So, if you’re looking to make that journey, here are some pointers to get you there without pulling out any hair.
Have you ever wondered about your family's past? You know, where people were born, how grandma met grandpa, and if traditional goulash is something you want to try? Diving into your family history can uncover a lot of forgotten details and some interesting facts. So, if you're looking to make that journey, here are some pointers to get you there without pulling out any hair.
Using technology to bridge the gap
It would be a very difficult and long task to try and use traditional methods to gather up informational text through libraries and the like, so why not use technology to give you a hand? A lot of old marriage records, important newspaper articles, and more can be obtained online.
Maybe you want to know when your great grandparents were married and where the ceremony took place. A resource like GenealogyBank can help you obtain said information so you can bridge the gap and fill out your family history. You can cut back on the time required to find a vast amount of facts for your personal records, so give it a shot.
Simply ask your family
Another easy way to gather information about your family history is to ask around and see if your family can fill you in. To make it a little more interesting, make a day of it. Plan for all of the people with information to come over, have drinks, and enjoy some tasty snacks while they drop the gossip and tell you any and all of their juicy stories.
This makes it a fun and enjoyable experience for those involved and you get to entertain while obtaining tidbits of information you can fact check later with other members of the family if you feel granny’s tale is a little far-fetched and you think she might have hit the wine a little harder than you anticipated.
Take a trip to the homeland
It might be the plan of many and fairly cliche, but taking a trip to the homeland is a nice way to get yourself knee-deep into the action. Hearing the story is one thing, but visiting the town, the street, and even the building where the information originated is something else entirely. If a wedding between your lovable great aunt and her husband has a hilarious backstory in an interesting little church in Sibiu, what’s stopping you from visiting Romania to check it out for yourself?
It could be a great adventure for you and your family to take to get a better understanding of your ancestors and the history they have made. Plus, visiting a place where your ancestors were born and raised gives you a glimpse of the life they might have lived back then.
Final thoughts: Make a journey and document everything
As you might already know, it’s important to write things down when it comes to family history. You’ll never know what you might find out and it’s good to jot it down along with the name of the person giving you the tip. Get yourself a nice journal and a set of good pens, so you can document your findings in style. This allows you to get really involved and fully invested in the process, rather than just scribbling it down in pencil on a piece of loose-leaf paper. Make an effort to properly chronicle the facts told to you by your family and anything found via the internet.
It’s better to have a lot of notes written down than to try and rely on your memory for things. And hey, if there are any conflicting stories, it will be easier to cross-reference the parties at hand and get down to the brass facts of it all.
