Documenting Our Ancestor’s Lives

Hi, friends! I hope all is well this week! Any good genealogy gems this week? Wasn’t RootsTech amazing last week. I learned so much about the different aspects of genealogy. I want to focus this week on documenting our genealogy.

Why do we search for hours on Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.org looking for that elusive record? Why does it matter to us? I’m sure there are many perspectives on these questions, but let me give you my perspective on this.

I search for those elusive records not just to say that I’ve found it.  However, it means that another piece of that person’s life is put into place.  It means more of his or her story is written for their family to see. It means that those mundane tasks that our ancestors did were for a reason. It led to you being here on this earth.

Documenting for Everyday Life

Recently I have had a chance to look at my life in a different way.  I used to think that my life was just too boring to take notice of it beyond what I was already doing.  Then I had a friend talk about documenting our lives because one day it will matter to someone. She was talking about taking more pictures of the mundane everyday things and being intentional about how we organize our pictures.  She was talking about putting those mundane moments into a photo book to remember later on. To her, these things mattered.  This is what documenting means.

She was showing some pictures of her mom doing her typical homemaking stuff around the house.  Her dad took those pictures not because she was all dressed up and picture worthy.  Nevertheless, he took them because it was a moment he didn’t want to forget.  It was real and raw and not her most flattering pose.  However, her daughter cherished those pictures because it showed her who her mom really was and not some pretend version of her. Yes, she wants those portrait shots of her mom, but she also wants those everyday shots to make her mom look more real.

Documenting for Genealogy

I turned this story around for genealogy purposes. Isn’t that what we want from our ancestors as well? We want to find more records of our ancestors so that they look more real to us. It’s like our ancestors left their everyday photos behind in the form of records for us to find. Their everyday lives have become our genealogy journey. All they were doing was creating the best life they knew how. They were grabbing opportunities when they came, they were surviving traumatic events, and they were celebrating momentous occasions just as we are today.  If they had the photographic technology back then, then they would have definitely used it just as we are doing today.

What about Today

So what are we doing today to document our lives? One day our mundane lives will be a genealogical journey for someone else. What do we want that to look like when that day comes? Do we want to pretend that our lives were always picture perfect happy with everybody smiling? On the other hand, do we want to be real with our future family and show the good and the bad? It’s a tough decision sometimes because it means being vulnerable, possibly being rejected, and definitely being judged.  Isn’t that what we are doing to our ancestors today? We see these records of them being an alcoholic, a deadbeat, a criminal, etc and we make it mean one thing or another.  We are able to relate to people like this because they show us their humanness. 

Summary

The point is don’t underestimate your mundane life. Your ancestors had mundane lives as well and yet that is what we want to see from them.  We want to see their mundane lives! We connect through everyday moments.  So get out there and appreciate your life right now, as it is warts and all! One day it will mean something to someone and that’s good enough for me.

If you want to learn more, then check out beckyhiggins.com for some awesome documenting tips. Keep connecting with your ancestors by finding their records and filling in their life story.  It’s all worth it!

Good luck and happy hunting!

Tiffany