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Genealogy 101: Discover Your Family History
hile the basic questions will get you on your way, genealogy is more than just names, dates and places.
A complete family history should include details of the lives of your ancestors.
The following questions can help you reconstruct the daily lives of your ancestors:
- Were you named after a family member? Who?
- What did your parents do for a living?
- What type of house did you live in as a child?
- Did your family own land? Where?
- Did you have a family garden? If you lived on a farm, what plants did you grow?
- Was your home heated? Did you have indoor plumbing? Did you have electricity?
- What was your hometown like?
- Did you attend school? What were your other duties as a child?
- Tell me about growing up with your siblings.
- Who in the family do you look like?
- What nationality are your parents? grandparents? or great grandparents?
- Did you visit relatives growing up? Who? Where did they live?
- Did you have any family pets?
- Did you belong to a church?
- How did you celebrate the holidays?
- How did you celebrate your birthday?
- When did you get your first job? What was it?
- Who was the first president you voted for?
- When did you meet your husband or wife?
- How did you get engaged? Did you go on a honeymoon?
- Did you serve in the military? If so, which branch? Did you serve in wartime?
- Did your father or grandfather serve in the military?
- What are your most significant achievements in life?
Other topics to consider: Family travel, recreation, recipes, clothing, impact of historical events, etc.
Why are these questions important? These questions will help you build a picture of what life was like for your relatives. They may also provide valuable clues in tracing your family roots.
Pulling together a family history can be difficult without a living source. However, it is possible. If you know that your great-great grandfather was involved with the early steam engines in the US, you can track down history books regarding the era. If you know the county and time period your relatives lived, often times you can locate county histories. The History of Crawford Co., Ohio 1881 is available online, and provides information concerning daily life and activities in Galion in the late 1800's. Biographic sketches are also included in this history. Military and church records may also be located.
