Personal Life Media

Transcript

Episode 05 SHOW NOTES

Interview:  David A. Fryxell is a contributing editor and columnist for Family Tree Magazine the nation’s most popular genealogy publication, which he founded.  He is also the editor and publisher of Desert Exposure, a regional monthly publication based in Silver City, NM.  David has some great ideas for tracking down family clues.

Scouring Your Home For Resources & Getting The Word Out

This week we’re going to talk about scouring our homes for family information and getting the word out to other family members that we’re on the hunt for family history.

Dorothy said it best in the movie The Wizard of Oz, “There’s no place like home!”  That is really true when it comes to family history research.  Sometimes the keys to unlock your family tree are right there under your nose. 

And that leads us to our next step in the research process: Scouring your home and your close relatives home for family information.

Now what kinds of things are you looking for?  You’re looking for:

• birth, marriage, and death certificates
• funeral programs
• obituaries
• wedding invitations and announcements
• newspaper clippings
• military records
• a family bible.  Long before births, marriages and deaths were recorded with the state, families recorded them in their family bible, and this was considered a legal record, so they are fairly common to find. 

Once you’ve combed through your house check with parents and see what they might have stored.  Tucked away in shoeboxes, desk drawers and attic rafters are often terrific clues to your family history.

The idea here is to keep a really open mind as you are looking through your family homes.  While something may not seem relevant today, it may answer a burning question down the road. 

Hopefully all this searching will bring some goodies to the surface, but don’t just stop at your door.  You need to get the word out to as many family members as you can that you are researching the family tree.  All of your relatives are potential sources for pieces of the family puzzle.  So here are my top three tips for tapping into the family history resources of your relatives:

Tip #1: Advertise!
I’m recording this episode right before Thanksgiving, which means Christmas and Chanukah are right around the corner.  This is the perfect time of year to get the word out.  While you can’t be at everyone’s house for the holidays, you can mail everyone a Christmas card and that is the perfect communication vehicle for letting the relatives know that you’re working on the family history.  You want to build the reputation in your family as the Family Historian.  You want to be the first person they think of when they are staring at an old box of photos or family papers wondering if they should just toss it. 

I’m amazed how powerful getting the word out is.  Family history just seems to find me now.  Not only do relatives know that I’m interested, but they know that I really care about the family history and that if they send me what they have it will be cared for and appreciated, and that feels a lot better to them than the guilt of just tossing Grandma’s newspaper clippings in the garbage after all the hard work she put into cutting them out. 

So as you are writing or emailing your holiday greetings be sure and let folks know that you’re working on the family tree, and maybe tell them a tidbit or two from your recent findings. Then let them know that if they have stories or information to share you would welcome that.  By letting them know your interest each time you communicate with them, I guarantee you that your reputation will flourish and interesting things will start to come your way.

Tip #2: Go Viral!
In addition to the occasional holiday card, consider setting up a family website or blog. Or join a web based family networking and sharing site like Geni.com or GeneTree.com.  These sites are free, and allow you to upload your family tree, your photos and stories and then invite your family to join so that you can stay in touch and share information.  If you set it up again it will establish you as sort of the hub of your family’s history. 

Tip #3: Share the Wealth
Don’t just be a collector of your family’s resources, but share them.  Post photographs that you receive from relatives on your family sharing site or print them in your Christmas newsletter.  Give credit to the person who sent it to you.  Maybe add a little background info that you have discovered about that person.  By sharing and caring for the treasures that come your way you gain credibility and trust potential contributors down the road.

A couple of years ago, I decided to take this concept to the next level.  While I don’t have the time right now to write and publish and comprehensive family history, there are some wonderful stories that I wanted to share.  So I decided to publish a short coffee table type book about my Grandmother’s Nursing Career and give it to my relatives for Christmas. 

I used Kodak Gallery online but there are other online publishers as well, and again I’ll have a link for several on the webpage for this episode. I created a hard cover book with 40 glossy full color pages and filled it with photos and my Grandmother’s journal entries and spiced it up with additional information I had found about the time and places she mentioned.  The result was a book that could be read and enjoyed in one sitting, that my relatives could enjoy.  It helped them visualize how all of the stuff I’m collecting can come together to tell wonderful stories about the ancestors we share.  I got several teary eyed thank yous from folks, and now they all keep an eagle eye out for anything that might help me with my research.  Since then I’ve published a book on my husband’s father’s naval career, and his grandfather’s immigration to America from England.

If you are interested in creating a book like this down the road, check out Episode 13 of my other genealogy podcast called The Genealogy Gems Podcast which you can find at www.GenealogyGems.TV and you can subscribe to for free in iTunes.  There you will be able to listen as I walk you through the process of creating your book step-by–step, as well as give you my My Top Six Tips For Making Your Book Fascinating to Your Reader.

And I have a video version of the book about my Grandmother’s Nursing Career.  It’s called A Nurse In Training and it’s a two-part video available at my Genealogy Gems Channel at YouTube.   And of course video is another great way to share what you have found. But that’s a topic for a while other episode!

Next Steps:
So your tasks this week are to search your house for family information, and start getting the word out to your relatives that you are working on your family tree.  And your first task with that is to include something about it in your Holiday Greeting Cards. 

Subscribe for Free: 
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And I invite you to listen to my other family history podcast called The Genealogy Gems Podcast.

Links:
See sidebar for all of the links mentioned in this episode.