As I was thinking of a title for this post I couldn't help thinking about the Trees of Mystery here in California. Sometimes the mysteries of our own family tree can be bigger than life and mysterious.
Every once in a while something will happen when I am researching that is pretty miraculous. I've had a couple of weeks like that and wanted to try to capture it on paper.
I found myself having an experience that is a culmination of learning little tidbits of information about family history for a long time. Sometimes I have wondered what will I ever do with that? This week that was a question answered in a wonderful way.
Back in the late 70's when we were asked to begin our research on our first four generations by our church leaders, I began. What I started with was actually the first step taught these days about how to begin. I talked a lot to all our living relatives. My parents were both alive and Jim's were too. Plus he had three grandparents living also. I cannot express how very important the little notes I scribbled down about what these older people told me have meant to my progression on the tree. I kept everything and that proved to be quite valuable this week. I wish now that I had taken a little more care with my penmanship of that scribbling and the content of my questions.
I wrote letters, lots of them. Recently I heard at RootsTech that one of the best things you can do is try to send a letter out daily to someone about something pertaining to your family. I have been doing more of that and it is amazing what can happen. We sometimes forget a lot of people, unbeknownst to us, are working on the same ancestors and collaboration is key. Family Search and Ancestry and the other big database companies have made that so much easier for us.
The things that made perfect sense from the very beginning like a good filing system, oral interviewing and keeping organized all helped so much. Also the gathering of documents, certificates, letters, etc. were put into surname files for easy access. I also knew that it had to be a consistent effort. That was not always easy with little ones clinging to both legs, and one in my arms on most days. But I did what I could.
Every time the family was together I'd learn new things about the relatives, both living and dead. I look back on that now and see a greater value in it than I did then, because a lot of those living people are now dead.
I learned early in my life to ask the questions that produced story telling answers and not simply yes or no questions. I had always had an interest in our extended family and I was pretty surprised that our living relatives did not know more about their parents, families and their heritage.
Looking back now with an older person's perspective I understand it more. Our early lives are very "me" centered. As we get older the reverse seems to be true. In our middle years we are just trying to keep our heads above water and survive It all. Truly there are seasons for everything.
But some people realize that life is family history at an early age and write journals, take a lot of photos, etc. That is all part of it for sure. It's never too late to start by the way!
It is not just about collecting vital records. It is always about the people, their unique lives and not just record collecting. If family history was just researching records it would be a very monotonous undertaking. But some of us have a deep yearning to know our deceased family members, even though they are gone. Who were they, what were their experiences, how did they shape our lives today and what can we learn from them?
These past weeks I went back in my memory and remembered a cousin of my father's who had sent me letters back in the late 70s when I first began my search. I had asked her to tell me about here Aunts and Uncles. My father had already died so I decided to do this with a couple of his cousins. Loretta wrote about each of the 9 living children of my great grandparents, Martin Allen Godfrey and Lillie Briggs. She also told me about her son, whom I had met as a child, that was also working on our family history.
Because of that letter she sent me I have been able to find lots of information in documents and letters of others and also acquire new photos. I was also able to find and contact her son, Mike, my second cousin, and introduce him to another grandchild of the Godfreys living and working on the same line in Arizona. So now we have three great grandchildren of the Godfreys working on the same the family collaboratively. This is now a family organization effort because of that one letter from so long ago.
One very important thing I have learned from this is that when you are looking at a letter like that one I kept for these several decades, you can read it many times and not see what it contains. You have to ask questions like what information do I need on this particular person and how can I find it? You have to analyze all the clues. They do not just jump out at you the first couple of times you read it. Just a sweeping read is so different than analyzing every sentence for the clues on one individual at a time.
I also learned to follow the promptings and thoughts that came to me when I was engaged in this effort. Several times I was prompted to contact a cousin before I actually did a lot of independent research. Three times that paid off in the exact information I was seeking. Before day's end each time I got my answers. We do not have to do it alone. We should not do it alone. We do not need to reinvent the wheel over and over again. We should be less timid about asking for help when we need it. Others with more experience can help and guide us and save us time. We should, in turn, do that for others. It is such a nice feeling to not be working alone on some of this work and the bonus is renewed relationships or new cousins in our lives. Cousin Power is real. I love it.
I got a copy of a handwritten letter from 1974 a week or so ago from my cousin Mike.. It was written to him by our great Aunt Minnie Ray Godfrey Phillips. She was a siblings to each of our grandmothers. I transcribed it this week and put it in FamilySearch memories. Check it out here: familysearch.org. Sign in. Go to KZWD-V4Y. It is priceless and is now preserved forever. Now this story than was had only by Mike is for the whole world. That is some kind of awesome in my book.
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