How Did Your Family Tree Grow?

Now that you have time for hobbies, you might consider finding your family’s roots. I started while still home schooling, intending to spark interest in history. It began when an elderly relative bequeathed some antique hymnals to us. One had a name written in a child’s hand. We did some detective work and found that the little girl was a 4-great aunt who was born in Canada in the mid 1800s and died young.

With that discovery, we dug deeper. Our family’s story paralleled America’s story. Missionaries came from Leiden to Plymouth. Advertisements written by William Penn drew persecuted Quakers and war-weary Germans who cleared the land and established farms, towns, churches, and schools. Familiar names like Alden, Standish, Adams, Crockett, and Lewis, of the Lewis and Clark expedition, kept cropping up. Family members served in each of our nation’s conflicts, starting with King Philip’s War. Uncles and cousins fought and died on both sides of the civil war. As the nation grew, our people followed the Westward Expansion. Perhaps the most interesting discovery I had was my husband and I are 12^th cousins, both descended from William Brewster, the spiritual leader of the Mayflower.

My fascination with genealogy continued after my nest was empty. Family anecdotes of the Dust Bowl and the English civil war inspired published short stories. Someday I hope to organize my material into a history of the United States.

If the genealogy bug bites you, you can get started by gleaning as much information as you can from family members. With your parents’ names and places of birth, you can find their birth, marriage, and/or death certificates. On these will be data about your grandparents. With that information, you can find great-grandparents and so on through many generations. My tree goes back to the 1580s. My husband’s goes back to 1066.

A good place to begin research is at your public library or the historical society in your hometown. Also, there are free online sites such as Family Search which has a huge data base. The USGenWeb Project covers every state and many counties. It includes census, land and cemetery records, history, bios, and picture galleries. Ancestry.com is excellent and has a free fourteen-day trial offer.

In many areas, like-minded people have formed genealogy societies where they share methodology and trade data. But a disclaimer. While this hobby is exciting and rewarding, it is also highly addictive.---Quinn

Is It Time for Your Memoirs?

Recently, my mother-in-law was watching a rerun of an old Lawrence Welk show. To me this was a bit nostalgic, but since it was part of my childhood, not at all unusual. However, as I watched my nephew and his wife, I was amazed. They had never seen a variety show. For the whole hour, they sat fascinated by the music, the costumes, and the hairstyles. Periodically, they exclaimed things like “wow” and “is this how it was?”

Afterwards, I got my mother-in-law to reminisce. Ordinary things from her girlhood like her father’s horse-drawn delivery truck, petticoats, and Marcel hairstyles provided precious glimpses into a past totally foreign to her children and grandchildren. The world is changing so quickly. Who knows? Maybe our children will visit grandchildren on the space platform or Moon City and regale them with stories of the olden times and the old folks who were earthbound.

Now that you are a home school graduate, you have leisure for hobbies and new pursuits. Maybe, while stories are still fresh in your mind, it is the ideal time to write your memoirs.

But you say, with all the material I have, I wouldn’t know where to begin. First you must remember a memoir is not a biography. Nor is it told chronologically. Instead, it is built upon a theme. Spend several months writing about fun experiences and little disasters that you now laugh about. Use story form. That is, each account must have a beginning, middle, and an end. When you have collected quite a few anecdotes, you should see patterns emerge. Put them together and that will be your theme. Examples might be: How My Home Schooled Children Grew in Character, How I Juggled Being a Home School Mom, a Soccer Mom, and a Theater Mom, or How We Home Schooled Our Way Across America.

Be consistent with the theme. Think small. You don’t need all the details. Focus on the main things and build around them. Write the narration in the first person using the voice you would use in a personal letter. If you speak with idioms, use them. Let future generations hear your personality, your character, your emotions, and your humor. What you feel is important to recall will be important to your readers as well.

The most memorable memoirs are filled with love. The strongest ones combine time and place with some turning point in one’s life. The decision to homeschool produced major changes in my life. Does anyone care to share a story?---Quinn

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.---Proverbs 3:5-6