The upcoming holidays are especially good times to gather ANCESTOR STORIES. Over the spam of seven Sundays, I will share with you my approach to preparing your ancestor stories to share with others. Before you can share, of course, you must have them and have them in a form to be useful to share and tell.
If you are on Facebook, the 7 Steps of Preparation to TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES are already available by joining the Cause: TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES. I encourage you to join.
The 7 Steps are, very briefly: Ask, Listen, Record, Organize, Research, Write, Share.
You will want to use Ask, Listen and Record all together over the holidays as family members get together at different times for different celebrations and events.
Our focus today is on Listen, the second of the 7 Steps. But, as I said last week Ask, Listen and Record do go together.
Listen is especially important if you do not have a digital recording devise with you - which you often will not have. Take special note of relationships mentioned. Without interrupting the flow of the conversation, you may want to ask for clarification of relationships if you do not have them clear in your mind. Was this a great-uncle or a great grandfather being discussed, for instance. You will also want to take particular note of the place - town and state - and the date - at least the year, or an approximation. These are the facts you would like to be able to go back and write down for further research. Listen carefully, and use your best memory tricks to retain not only the story content but the basic vital facts, as best you can.
Next Sunday, we will discuss the Record issue in more detail.
Families are Forever! ;-)
This sounds like a terrific series, Bill. I will definitely be back for the rest of it.
ReplyDeleteI have a question which may seem silly to you. I've been on Facebook for almost a year and am in touch with hundreds of fellow geneabloggers, but how do I join a cause? Where exactly do I go?
Evelyn in Montreal
This is very good. I love learning about my ancestors and reading the stories of other peoples' ancestors. I'm glad I found your blog.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year!
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