Author Topic: Family History  (Read 779 times)

Offline Ken Fraser

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Family History
« on: December 01, 2023, 06:18:18 AM »
In the 1970s I became interested in tracing our family histories. I completed my researching ; myself back to 1798 and in my wife's case back to 1840 and could find no records earlier than that. I then spent 1979 compiling a joint family tree. This took a long time because I was working on it spasmodically between working commissions. As all my basic information was gathered in around 20 notebooks, I then decided to write it out in a form of family history and did this in 1980. I'd like to recommend this as a marvelous subject for handwriting and this is the purpose of this post

I read somewhere that long lines of handwriting can be difficult to read as you go from one line to the next  down the page so
I used a simple format of two columns to a page which seemed to work quite well. I started from the top of the tree and worked my way down to my children following the path of direct ancestors. I added dates where known and occupation information. I included all siblings with dates of birth.

There are no such things as genealogical police and you can make a family history as detailed or as simple as you want My children are now grown adults with children of their own, and they value this history book as an historical document which is a very personal legacy having been handwritten. Obviously, this isn't calligraphy, but written at a reasonable speed in my normal handwriting at the time. At an x height of 3mm it's around 40 pages long and this is a typical page.. It took me a long time to produce but it was very much a labour of love. I can think of no better use of handwriting and I know that, being personal it will be around with descendants long after I've gone.

 
« Last Edit: December 01, 2023, 04:21:20 PM by Ken Fraser »

Offline darrin1200

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Re: Family History
« Reply #1 on: December 01, 2023, 08:15:32 AM »
This is a fabulous idea Ken. I am only at the beginnings of my search. But writing like this might actually be a great way to keep the names in my head.
Darrin McArthur
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Offline Ken Fraser

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Re: Family History
« Reply #2 on: December 01, 2023, 10:20:24 AM »
This is a fabulous idea Ken. I am only at the beginnings of my search. But writing like this might actually be a great way to keep the names in my head.
Thanks, Darrin. Good luck with your research.

Offline Erica McPhee

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Re: Family History
« Reply #3 on: December 01, 2023, 06:26:41 PM »
Oh I LOVE this! I am definitely going to do this. Thank you Ken! Also, what a fascinating history you have there. As a knitter I can only imagine what it would be like spending my days reeling yarn! Also, to be pregnant at the time of marriage in that day and age must have been quite the scandal! I can’t wait to get started on this!  :-*

P.S. Funny tidbit from my family - my grandparents grew up in Bath, Maine. My husband’s grandparents did as well. His grandfather confessed to me one day that in high school, he “had the hots” for my grandmother, who he described as the prettiest and smartest girl in their class. But he said, sadly did not favor him. I thought how strange - that I (her granddaughter) would end up marrying his grandson. And that I would not have come to be if she had returned his feelings! Almost like our families were destined to be intertwined.
Warm Regards,
Erica
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Offline Ken Fraser

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Re: Family History
« Reply #4 on: December 02, 2023, 04:28:39 AM »
Oh I LOVE this! I am definitely going to do this. Thank you Ken! Also, what a fascinating history you have there. As a knitter I can only imagine what it would be like spending my days reeling yarn! Also, to be pregnant at the time of marriage in that day and age must have been quite the scandal! I can’t wait to get started on this!  :-*
Great anecdote! I can see that your history is going to be full of colour and interest. There is another aspect of this project which is worth realizing. There is no time limit. I took almost the whole of 1980 to compile my 37 pages literally writing paragraph by paragraph as time allowed.
Your children and descendants will be very grateful for this project as most of the information would probably have been lost forever. It's worth remembering the obvious. Not many people know anything about their comparatively recent ancestors, without whom we wouldn't be here. It's great fun and a great use of handwriting, which gives it a truly personal feeling.

Offline Zivio

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Re: Family History
« Reply #5 on: December 04, 2023, 07:22:25 PM »
... There is another aspect of this project which is worth realizing. There is no time limit. I took almost the whole of 1980 to compile my 37 pages literally writing paragraph by paragraph as time allowed ...

What a beautiful labor of love and heirloom for your family! Your comment about time limit resonates with me ... I've always marveled at how much may be accomplished by small actions over long periods of time. This thought is often an inspiration to make the most of our moments and to attempt (sadly unsuccessfully for me at times) to put them to as best use possible.

Thanks for sharing this inspirational work!
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