I am sending an article written by William Dollarhide.  It is so true and I know a lot of us genealogists don't think it is necessary to write things about themselves. Like "Who cares or who will ever care" about what I have done or not done during my lifetime.  I have two grandsons and they spend two or three visits with us each year and the thing they like to do most is talk at the dinner table about how we (grandparents) grew up and the things we did, places we've been, people we liked or didn't like, what our brothers and sisters were like etc etc.  A long time ago (about 12 yrs) when we purchased our first computer I started writing about ME and my brothers and sisters as we grew up and the things we did - who got into trouble - who Momma liked best - and just trivial stuff and some serious stuff as well.  I even wrote a short story for them about my first dog which wasn't a dog at all but a baby calf whose mother died giving birth and I had to take care of it.  I was 12 years old. They LOVED it and wanted MORE.  So remember that each one of you are important and your descendants are going to want to know about the person you were.  When writing my book I made a point of telling everything about my ancestors that I could find.  I wanted so much to find out "what it was that makes me, me.."  A book full of names and dates is OK but rather boring.

I have a subscription to Genealogy Bank and have found priceless old newspaper articles about my ancestors and have started putting them on my website.

Anyway, please read Mr. Dollarhide's article and get busy writing some stuff about your self  - your children and their children will thank you long after you are gone.  No one can tell your story better than you.

Take care everyone and have a great Spring, fern
www.bufordfamilies.com  

"Did You Really Start with Yourself?" by William Dollarhide 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When asked the question, "How do you start doing genealogy?" most genealogists will respond, "Start with yourself." 

Most genealogists respond that way, but I'm not so sure that's what they actually do. The fact is, we are more inclined to start with our parents and immediate family members. What we write down about ourselves is usually our name and vitals on a pedigree chart and family group sheet. The information comes from our heads. After all, we know our place of birth, marriage, and all the dates. 

The unfortunate fact is, we may not give as much attention to collecting written documents concerning ourselves as for our ancestors. We work from the known to the unknown. Things that are known and established don't get our attention because we would rather work on the unknowns. 

For example, do you have a copy of your own birth certificate? How about a copy of your marriage license? Or perhaps you have a copy of your confirmation record from church? How about a newspaper clipping that mentions your name on the high school honor roll? Where is that old high school annual, the one with that wonderful retouched photograph of you at age 17? Do you still have your college diploma? How about the newspaper article in which you were mentioned--the one about your team winning the championship? Where is that photo of the first car you ever owned? 

And then there are your memories. All the basic vital statistics have been written down, and the family group sheets and pedigree charts have all the details. But what about the history of you?

You can write quite a nice biography of your great-grandfather. You have that county history in which he was prominently mentioned, giving some details about his life. You have his death record from a county courthouse, a copy of his marriage license, and several other documents. You can prove what you say about him because you have the written documents. Can you do the same thing for yourself?

What have you written about yourself that will be read by your descendants a hundred years from now? Will your descendants get anything more than your vital statistics on a pedigree chart, or is there something else you can leave them?

Some dos and don'ts for writing about your life:

- DON'T worry about what to write. All you have to do is remember something that happened to you in your life. Make it a vignette or a brief remembrance of some event in your life, such as your earliest childhood memory; your first day in school; the Sunday dress you spoiled; or the time you fell out of a tree and broke your leg. 

- DON'T feel that you need to write everything about yourself at one sitting. Think of the writing project as an on-going endeavor made up of small pieces and one that may take some time to complete. Write without a plan or chronological order to the things you remember. One day you can write about last week, another day you can write about 40 years ago. 

- DO write at least a couple of paragraphs at a time. When you recall some event in your life, write part of a page. Make the writing an easy thing to do at any time of the day, without interfering greatly with your time. Then, write by whim or when a thought comes. 

- DO try to remember the names and relationships of people. Try to remember the places where events took place, and try to place an approximate date to the events you write about. 

- DO treat each piece of writing as a separate item on a separate page (or pages). Put the written pages in a special place where they can be retrieved and read from time to time.

- DO try to date the pages for each event you are writing about, so that the pages can be put into a chronological order later. Dates can be approximate, such as "about 1955" or "when I was in the 4th grade." 

- DON'T worry about your writing style or grammar, or that your writing will be judged by your 11th-grade English teacher. It won't. One hundred years from now no one will fault you for not spelling every word perfectly.

- DON'T worry if you will ever finish writing everything you could write. If you have separate sheets of paper with stories--all dated--then anyone could take what you have written and make something of it. 

- DON'T think of the events of your life as unimportant. Your descendants will love reading about things you may think are mundane and uninteresting. 

- DO consider that what you write will become a legacy.


SOME THINGS TO SAY about yourself that your descendants will love to read 100 years from now:

- Your trip to visit your grandparents when you were 10 years old. What was grandmother wearing? Can you remember the great pastries she made on that old wood-burning kitchen stove?
- The time your brother scored the winning touchdown but ran into the goalpost and knocked himself out.
- When crazy Aunt Ethel came to visit and brought your cousin Hector along. 
- Your thoughts at the moment you first looked at your newborn child.
- A description of your first car.
- Your first date. Your first kiss.
- Relatives you remember.
- School teachers you will never forget.
- Family get-togethers. Friends of the family. 
- Places you have visited. Unforgettable travel experiences.
- Graduation day. 
- Your wedding. Your honeymoon. Your first new home.
- Your first job. The worst boss you ever had. The best job you ever had.
- Great financial successes. Bad investments. 
- The happiest times of your life were . . . 
- Service in the armed services. 
- Going to war. Protesting the war.
- Your family traditions on Thanksgiving, Christmas, other holidays.
- Favorite vacation spots.
- Your troublesome brother-in-law.
- Growing up without television (or the Internet, or cell phones). 
- Where you were and what you were doing the day John F. Kennedy was killed.
- Your favorite movies. 
- The people you admire most, and why.
- Your hobbies. Your talents. 
- Your accomplishments. What are you most proud of?
- Where you plan to put the words you have written. 


To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at
http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html