Family Tree Researchers.. Listen to Your Older Folk

Over the years I've been given much advice on how to conduct my Family Tree research

. One of the foremost is to listen to members of the family who are of the older generation as what they can tell you may provide leads for your research. But be warned to watch out for those false assumptions that have crept into the family tales over the years. The passing of time may blur the memory. Family "received wisdom" may have been passed down with adjustments in place to spare some past ancestors name. Embarrassingly unmarried aunts and uncles living in what was known as "in sin" to older generations.Then there are those who were still married to spouses living elsewhere, while passing themselves off as a married couple. Families have a tendency to close ranks to avoid the shame they believed would be heaped on them by the problem, which in today's society does not carry the stigma it once did.I've got stories that have sent me off in certain directions trying to find an ancestor of Irish birth, only to find he may well have been a colourful invention. I've vague recollections of family tales of heroic deeds by certain relatives, when the reality was less prosaic. Nonetheless listening to our elders is an important place to start and, on occasions, to go back to as a source.I had a great opportunity, recently, to find out a bit more from my father about his youth, holidays with his parents and as a young man the trips he made on business. The catalyst was a themed day out with him. My Dad and I went for a Sunday meal in the dinning car of a steam train on the Great Central Railway at Loughbrough. A problem can be getting the chance to sit down and talk with our parents about the old days. In our case a birthday treat on the Great Central Railway steam train, offered a useful introduction to some stories from the past that I had not heard before. I learned about my father's train trips from Birmingham to Devon on the Great Western Railway as a child. Journeys he made in war time Britain, when he was no more than a teenager on leave from the Merchant Navy and travelling home in uniform to visit his mother. He also recounted to me his foreign rail trips as a young professional architect attending possible developments in Portugal and Turkey before the days of inexpensive commercial flights to these places.But while it is great to listen and record these stories we must remain vigilant. So many of us in our genealogy research have jumped to conclusions based on incorrect information, more especially when we are just starting out. We are taught to listen attentively to family stories and tales, because we know that older family members are often our best source of information on our family history. Memories, however, will often become faulty or can be exaggerated with the passing of time. We need to have a healthy regard for this and always try to confirmed these oral histories by going to the actual records and documents to confirm what we have been told. The same applies equally to printed sources - simply because a family tree or record transcription has been written down or even published in a book or on a website does not necessarily mean that it is correct. Never make assumptions about the quality of the research done by others as we all make mistakes and that includes the professional genealogists!Review the research you've done with the proverbial fine-tooth comb. You should bear in mind that you may have misinterpreted something that another has said or written. Could you have made assumptions without sufficient proof? But don't stop listening, ever!

Family Tree Researchers.. Listen to Your Older Folk

By: Nick Thorne

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