Welcome to my A to Z journey through family history. If you’ve ever been curious about your own family’s story perhaps this will tempt you to get started – or frighten you off entirely.
A is for ANCESTORS
The starting point about doing family history is to learn who our ancestors were, their names and where they came from.
Quite often oral family history breaks down over only a few generations so that some people may not know the names of grandparents who perhaps died young, and few will know the names of their great-grandparents.
Many of us start out wanting to know more about these shadowy figures from whom we descend. As many of us descend from immigrant families, we are often curious about the countries of origin for our immigrant ancestors.
Contrary to a popular advertisement, you do need to have some sense of what you’re looking for, otherwise you might well have your ancestral ladder propped up against the wrong tree.Traditional genealogy trains us to follow backwards in a line from ourselves to our parents, their parents and their parents in turn, confirming each linkage based on the evidence we discover rather than simply plucking suggested leaves from others’ trees or program suggestions.
Building a genealogy is like building the foundations of a house – get it right and you’ll wind up with a solid ancestral line. However, there’s more to each of us than simply our dates of birth, marriage and death. There are innumerable sources we can investigate to explore the lives of our families: where they lived, what were their social circumstances, how did they earn their daily bread etc. This is what we refer to as putting “flesh on the bones” of your ancestry. I call it exploring your family history.
A is for ARCHIVES
These oft-neglected gems are an Aladdin’s cave of riches for family historians. Having moved beyond the basic biographical data, this is where you’re most likely to find all sorts of delights to reveal more of your ancestor’s lives. Don’t let anyone tell you this is all online already – I can’t imagine that ever happening despite the exponential growth of online records in recent years.Nor will a genie appear offering you an instant solution to your search.
Archives can be challenging, mysterious and downright frustrating, but like a lot of our research, there’s nothing like adding some more shading to the family stories. Fortunately they are now more responsive to family historians and often have guides, flow charts and other handy tools as well as the google of archives – the archivists themselves.
Come along on the journey with me for the next month as we explore how we track down our ancestors and their stories. Feel free to ask questions as we go along, either in general or in relation to a specific topic.
If you’re interested in taking on this ancestral journey it comes with two warnings:
- You never know what you’ll discover so be prepared to be tolerant of what you discover
- This hobby obsession is addictive – many of us start on the journey little realising that years later we’ll still be sleuthing away looking to solve one more mystery or find one more detail.
Family history across the seas 
I’m looking forward to following your journey this month Pauleen. Great post for A and I love your paragraph “Contrary to a popular advertisement, you do need to have some sense of what you’re looking for, …….”
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Thanks Kerryn….we’re thinking alike.
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I’m joining you on the magic carpet – great start.
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Great to have you on board Jill.
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Oh yes…it’s an obsession all right !
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Glad to see another Australian family historian join the AtoZ – look forward to reading your posts. Regards Anne
http://ayfamilyhistory.blogspot.com.au/2016/04/a-is-for-accident-in-avoca.html
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Thank you I will learn so much from your posts.
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Thanks Carmel…it would be great to have your additions/comments on the topics….always more that could be added.
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@cassmob
Family History Across The Seas
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Great stuff. Will be recommending our Boulia students follow you to get more tips.
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Thanks Judy!
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A beautifully spot-on start with Ancestors & Archives – you have said it all! I look forward to your further thoughts.
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Thanks Sue…I know archives are a topic close to your heart.
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Pauleen, great start to the challenge. I’m sure I will learn from your series of posts. Fran
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Thanks Fran…look forward to your feedback,
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Love your topic. I’ve signed up to follow you. Hope you’ll stop by my site Women in the 1930s.
http://www.lorihenriksen.com
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That sounds like a great topic…glad you made it to A to Z. Will be hopping over to visit you.
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That sounds like a great topic…glad you made it to A to Z. Will be hopping over to visit you.
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Okay, now I think I’m signing up. Newbie to a-to-z and technically challenged.
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Good luck…and if it’s too late to sign up it’s worth sampling different blogs.
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Great advice! Looking forward to more 🙂
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Haha – I went up the wrong ladder and got quite far back, so was fairly disappointed when I found I had the wrong branch and hit a brick wall with mine. I have yet to go to archives as I live far away from where I need to be and can’t travel very well at this time, but hope to one day. I look forward to your a-z posts!
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Thanks Dianne, can happen easily but maybe on the new line there’ll be no brick wall 😉 yes it’s tough when you are located far from your area of research which is when those digital records do come into their own. Happy hunting and thanks for visiting.
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Enjoyed your Letter A Challenge post. Well written and wondeful graphics! I am also blogging on Ancestors From A to Z and look forward to checking back to read more of your posts later in the month.
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I can see how this could become a completely obsessive pursuit to finding out everything you can about your family history. Great way to start your A-to-Z Challenge. Good luck with it 🙂
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Thanks Pete.
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Yes, the hobby has definitely become an obsession! I am a bit worried that when I retire, I will need to be very careful that I do not become a genea-recluse!
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Always a risk I guess but our genea-gang keeps us all connected, at least virtually and occasionally in the real world.
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