Bringing Your Family History to Life
"I came to a realization that there is something that any one of us can do for all who have died. I came to see that any one of us, by himself, can care about them, all of them, and love them."--Boyd K. Packer
I adore genealogy, and can spend hours entering names, dates and places, even though I normally dislike tedious work. Most of the time I enter the names and move on. But every now and then, something deep inside registers as I enter a name and I know I have found someone who matters for one reason or another. Sometimes that person seems instantly real, making it easy to remember why we do this. Other times, I have to work to make an ancestor come to life. When your ancestors become real people to you, it is so much easier to do the years of research, because you care about them. Genealogy is more than who, what, when and where, four of the six questions journalists are taught to ask. There are two more questions: Why? How? Asking those questions can bring your ancestors to life.
Begin by creating a timeline of your ancestor’s life. Include in it everything you know so far, including birth, marriage, births of children and grandchildren, moves, conversions and anything else you have a date or approximate time frame for. I am working on a timeline for Elizabeth Blossom. It isn’t complete—it doesn’t have all the grandchildren, for example. But already, as I have worked on it, Elizabeth has become more real. Notice that she was only nine when her Pilgrim parents finally left Holland and made it to the New World, nine years after the first Pilgrims. I found a picture of the port the ship would have sat in as it was loaded, and, realizing she was a child, placed her in the picture and tried to imagine her thoughts as she tried to envision a world she had probably heard about all her life. Was she scared? Excited? Angry? Notice that her father died just three years after she arrived in Plymouth and her mother remarried just months later, and soon after that, she moved again. Notice that five of her eleven children died before she did, as well as two husbands. So much death! Notice that her first husband died shortly after they moved to Piscataway, New Jersey, following a break-up of their congregation. Piscataway was largely unsettled. Once again, she was being a pioneer, but now she was doing it as the leader of the family, and perhaps it had only been her husband’s dream anyway. What did she think about as she stood at the edge of the pond on her land?
It is likely your ancestor never left a journal to tell you how she felt, or how she was affected by the events of the day. However, if you take the extra time to read history, you may be able to guess. What historical events happened in your ancestor’s lifetime, and which might she have been affected by? You will probably need to look into the lives of her siblings to get the complete story. A female ancestor might not have gone to fight in the Revolutionary War, but her brother might have, and she would have someone to worry about.
Think about the roles of men, women and children in your ancestor’s day, as well as the status and roles of her religion, economic station, and race. Was she a Quaker when Quakers were often illegal? Was she Baptist when the doctrine was still being hammered out? Was she educated, a servant, or widowed? Find out how she would be viewed by society at large and what her expected role was. My Elizabeth moved from place to place with her father, her stepfather, her husband and her sons. Each move was made to follow a religious leader, often after a battle took place in a congregation, causing a divide. She saw some of her children join other religions. Did she make these moves, often to largely uninhabited areas, because of her own beliefs, or because a proper woman of her time followed the men in her life? Did she join her church because she believed or because she should?
As you begin to question, to wonder, to explore the world in which your ancestor lived, she will stop being just another name among thousands more. She will become a real person, with dreams, fears, hopes, and a need for your help in the eternities. Imagine how much more exciting it will be when you are finally united with her after your death. She won’t be a name you barely recognize, but a family member you’ve grown to love.