Start With You
2010
Gathering our family history is like gathering our family around us. The process expands our universe and our hearts and creates a sense of something divine and spiritual. The gathering process lasts a lifetime, but the foundation can be laid now to make the lifetime process easier and habit-forming. Our family members will continue to be born, marry and die and their daily lives will be filled with hopes, dreams and disappointments. If we do not record the lives of those we love, their stories will be lost with our memories of them.
As time passes, and as we keep looking, more information will become available which will give our ancestors life and we will grow to love them, even though we might not have ever met them in life. We will begin to understand that we are fulfilling a sacred obligation to find them and that they are waiting for us. Our posterity will know where we placed value by our efforts and examples and they will be inspired to continue the process.
Always begin at the beginning. This means that YOU are number one. That means that you if you are single or you and your spouse if you are married are the beginning point for the process of gathering and compiling a family history. Everything flows backwards, forward and sideways from you. The reasons why will become apparent as you proceed.
A common mistake people make is to find interest in a particular ancestor who is known, whose descendants through your direct line are NOT known. That is why it is important to start in the present and work backwards, not the other way around. Starting in the past is backwards.
A LOUD word of caution as you begin the gathering process: People love their stories, even if the stories are not true or correct. There is usually a grain of truth in most family stories, but often they are embellished or altered to fit the picture of life an individual wants to paint. This is particularly true if there are some perceived negative events in a person’s life.
Truth and accuracy are essential when gathering information for and compiling a family history. However, some secrets are secret for a reason and should be kept or at least tempered with the feelings of others in mind.
Start With Your Immediate Family
Gather the following for your immediate family group. This means you, your spouse and your children.
{This list is oriented towards members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints but includes most things in common with all denominations}
- Birth Certificates
- Certificates of Blessing or Christening
- Certificates of Baptism
- Certificates of Priesthood Organization
- Priesthood Lines of Authority
- Certificates of Advancement in Church Organizations
- Patriarchal Blessings
- Marriage Certificates
- Death Certificates
- Family Photographs
- Individual Photographs
{ If you are a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints, your ward clerk can give you your Family Membership Record which contains all of the ordinance dates for you and your family }
Gather the following for your parents.
- Birth Certificates
- Marriage Certificates
- Death Certificates
- Photographs
- Personal History, Oral or Written, Biographical or Autobiographical
Gather the following for your siblings.
- A Family Group Sheet for each family complete with all birth, death and marriage dates and places for each member of the family
- A family photograph and individual photographs of each family member
Gather the following for your parents’ siblings. {your uncles and aunts on both sides of your family}
- A Family Group Sheet for each family complete with all birth death and marriage dates and places for each member of the family. That means that if your uncle has five children, you will ask for a family group sheet for your uncle and his spouse and EACH of his five children.
- Family group and individual photographs
When you gather information for your own family, the families of your siblings, your parents, your aunts, uncles and cousins and grandparents . . . it is easy to see the importance of starting here. Your living family becomes quite large in many cases.
BE PATIENT. While this information is important to you, it may not be to others. In fact, most people don’t have the information you are asking for. They haven’t cemented their families in time and so they must begin in the same place . . . with themselves.