Posted by Crista Cowan on June 2, 2015 in Ancestry.com
As a genealogist, I love putting the puzzle of the family tree together. I love the process of reasonably exhaustive searches and analysis and correlation of evidence. I love how one genealogical question leads to another and those questions lead to records that lead to more questions. It’s exciting to share that “thrill of the hunt” with other genealogists. But, when it comes time to share with my family, they want to know who these people were, what they did for work, how they lived, who they loved.
We often identify people in our family tree by name and then a birth date and a death date. A grandfather can show up in your online tree and family history reports as Herbert Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980). It’s easy to fill in those blanks and move on. But, it’s also important to remember that there is a whole life that was lived in the dash between . . .
As a genealogist, I love putting the puzzle of the family tree together. I love the process of reasonably exhaustive searches and analysis and correlation of evidence. I love how one genealogical question leads to another and those questions lead to records that lead to more questions. It’s exciting to share that “thrill of the hunt” with other genealogists. But, when it comes time to share with my family, they want to know who these people were, what they did for work, how they lived, who they loved.
We often identify people in our family tree by name and then a birth date and a death date. A grandfather can show up in your online tree and family history reports as Herbert Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980). It’s easy to fill in those blanks and move on. But, it’s also important to remember that there is a whole life that was lived in the dash between . . .
those two dates. In order to truly honor his memory and to ensure that our living family members (the ones who aren’t all that into genealogy but all love a good story) actually pay attention, we need to take the dry facts about the life of Herbert and weave them into a story that will last. It’s one of the only ways all of our hard work is likely to have a lasting effect on our family.
There is another benefit of putting together the story of “the life lived in the dash.” The process of taking all those facts and weaving them into a story forces me to look at the same information in a different way. It causes the holes and inconsistencies in my research to float to the surface and guides me in additional research. Facts that don’t make sense are easier to spot when you read through the story.
- See more at: http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2015/06/02/ancestry-lifestory-new-website/#sthash.ezIa0e5s.dpuf
There is another benefit of putting together the story of “the life lived in the dash.” The process of taking all those facts and weaving them into a story forces me to look at the same information in a different way. It causes the holes and inconsistencies in my research to float to the surface and guides me in additional research. Facts that don’t make sense are easier to spot when you read through the story.
- See more at: http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2015/06/02/ancestry-lifestory-new-website/#sthash.ezIa0e5s.dpuf
