Who’s Your Granddaddy?
A sense of belonging is important for all of us, as can be seen in this previous post, but it’s especially important for children. As can be seen in this article in The Guardian, knowing their family history is beneficial for kids. Besides what scientists tell us, a child not knowing who their family is or where their roots lie manifests itself in adoptees or adults who were estranged from their family as a child. One episode of Who Do You Think You Are or Relative Race demonstrates the tremendous impact discovering their family history can have on children, even later in life.
A Journey of Discovery
The good news is discovering your family’s history is not hard. The first step is to talk to your relatives. Your aunts and uncles, grandparents, even your cousins can have a different perspective about your family. Often relatives will have old family memories stored in their attics that have been long forgotten. Start the conversation within the family you know about your family’s origins and you may find that memories begin to surface, people remember about old letters or other family heirlooms, and long forgotten stories and secrets are revealed. Once your family learns your interest in its history, you will find that you will soon become the “family historian” and your relatives will start contacting you with their discoveries. While you are discovering your family’s history, include your children too.
After you learn what your relatives can tell you, then you move on to your ancestors. The easiest way to discover the details of their lives is to access one of the family history websites. There are four major sites, Ancestry, FamilySearch, My Heritage, and Find My Past, and several smaller ones. Each of them have differences but work mostly the same. Try them out and see which one fits the best.
Two Steps for Success
There are entire courses on how to research online, I even designed one! Without making this post so long no one would read it, I have two pieces of advice for you. The first is to require that before you accept someone into your past family that you require proof that you are related. The second is that discovering your family’s history is a journey, not a race. Most people, whether as adults or children, once they start making discoveries, are on this journey for a lifetime.
If by now you are wondering when you are going to find time for this journey with all of life’s other obligations, there is help. If you don’t have the time or are feeling overwhelmed, Heroes of the Past can go on this journey with you. Whether you want to find out if a family legend is true or write a complete family history book contact us to learn how together we can find those answers!
