I finally had a chance to get to my storage unit and retrieve my family history files that I started working on back in the early 1990s.  After about 3 hours in the HOT Florida weather (anywhere from 92 to 98 degrees), I found all my files and some that had gotten put in the wrong boxes.  I still have not found 1 file of my grandfather’s that had some original documents in that file.  I am hoping that they too are mixed up with something else in another box and not lost completely.

This is the mess I had to go through and half way in to even begin finding my genealogy files.

Once I got the files home and started going through them, I realized I had no idea of what I was doing when I first started this project.  I knew enough back then to obtain birth records, death records, marriage records, wills, etc. but I never sat down and created a filing system.  If anyone else were to inherit this mess, more than likely it would all be thrown out in frustration.

I can kind of make sense of it because I created the chaos but even at times it was very confusing.  In some cases, I found 3 copies of a birth certificate (1 for the child file, 1 for the mother file and 1 for the father file); absolutely too much work and a crazy system.  Same thing for death certificates, but usually 4 copies of these (the person who died, the person who supplied the information and the names of the deceased persons parents).

And please don’t ask about the census records… too many of them to count all over the place.

So, before I go any further, I am creating a system, in hopes that generations to follow me will be able to pick up exactly where I left off.  If not, at least a historical society or the LDS Church can have my records as a donation.

I am not sure whether I am trying to reinvent the wheel or not and maybe the system I am going to use is already in use but I have to work on a system that is easy as 1 – 2 – 3 for me.  I AM basically starting from day 1 since I lost my computer records due to a Trojan virus in December of 2010.  I was able to find a sketchy family tree record still left on Ancestry.com that I could transfer to my computer.  I am so happy that Ancestry.com saves the files even if you aren’t a member for a while.

I will be using a genealogy software program, basically for numbering purposes; printing family group sheets and individual report sheets because after watching some interesting videos, I’ve decided that most of my genealogy research, etc. will be done on paper.  As someone in one of the videos mention, “Who knows if in 20, 30 or 40 years if everything is done by computer, who is to say that future generations will ever be able to retrieve the information.”

I will be adding videos as I go along to show how I am setting up my system and will be preparing forms and suggestions and information on research resources and other sites to make your “genealogical life” much easier, especially if you are a beginner.

You might be surprised at what you will find hiding in your family tree but unless you search and document your findings you may never know.

The more time that passes, there is more of a danger that older records cannot or will not be found or be able to be verified, older relatives pass away and the stories are gone forever and who knows, what “skeletons” good or bad are in your family closet?

Something you find might be embarrassing, might be scandalous but in the grand scheme of things, does it really matter in 50 or 100 years?  But the stories and emotions will be gone and that is just sad.

In my own family research I have found some surprising information and I am sure I will find more along the way.  In fact, I have found that I am related to Lizzie Borden.  Remember the rhyme?

Lizzie Borden took an axe

And gave her mother forty whacks.

When she saw what she had done

She gave her father forty-one.

The Salem Witch Trials – I have connections to those too (Henry Lake’s wife, of Dorchester. 1650?).  As I progress on this site, I will be adding my family tree information.

My greatest concern right now is to try and encourage YOU to start looking now, start writing down those stories of the things that happened when you were young, when your kids were young, stories your parents and grandparents told you.  DON’T LET these times pass away with your loved ones. 

My daughter asked me the other day about an experience that happened to her dad and I when we were young.  I realized, that story is NOT written down anywhere and if I don’t write it down, it will be gone forever.  She will not remember it and her kids will never know the story.

Your stories do not have to be a major production such as doing scrapbook pages, which I am choosing to do and will share with you from time to time.   It can be as simple as writing in a spiral notepad, a 3-ring binder, on the computer, anywhere.  Just get your stories written down.  Talk to your older relatives and find out as much as you can before it is too late.   Take pictures, write down dates, jot notes down as they happen and expand on them a few minutes before you go to sleep at night.

“In all of us there is a hunger, marrow deep, to know our heritage – to know who we are and where we came from. Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning. No matter what our attainments in life, there is still a vacuum, an emptiness, and the most disquieting loneliness.” 

- Alex Haley

Monna (Shaw-Davis) Ellithorpe

Scrapbooking Your Family Tree.com