By Nina Brawn
I like to re-evaluate what I am doing with my genealogy every few years. We all grow and change as we age, and sometimes the reasons we started doing things a certain way no longer apply. I always tell beginning genealogists to consider not only who they want to find, but why they want to find them.
Some people may simply want to fill in that famous Pedigree Chart with the names of a few generations of grandparents. Others may have started trying to solve the mystery of some illness which appears to be genetic. Whatever the reason you started, chances are your search has grown beyond your original goals. Sometimes this means that your original record-keeping process may no longer work for you.
One of the best places to start establishing good habits is to start with yourself.
Have you yet written down all your personal history? Do you have your own birth certificate? Have you recorded the names of all the schools you attended and where they were located? Have you written to see if your transcripts are available? Do the same for religious records, and clubs or organizations.
I know, by now you are probably saying: “I don’t care about any of that.” There are three reasons you should. 1. Someday you will be gone. Your great-grandchildren will want to know this stuff (Don’t you wish you had it for your great-grandparent?) 2. It helps you consider how and where you might get some elusive answers for your ancestors. 3 The last reason it may be helpful is that in collecting this data on yourself, you may get some new ideas about organizing similar information for your other relatives.
Columnist Nina Brawn of Dover-Foxcroft is a longtime genealogy researcher, speaker and teacher. Reader e-mails are welcome at ninabrawn@ gmail.com. Her semimonthly column is sponsored by the Aroostook County Genealogical Society which meets the fourth Monday of the month except in July and December at Cary Medical Center’s Chan Education Center at 6:30 p.m. Guests are always welcome. FMI contact Edwin “J” Bullard at 492-5501.
