Target your family history research:
1.Ancestors Village of Origin
2.German History
3.Geography of Germany
4.Länder– State
5.Kreis – County
6.Gemeinden– Community / Township
Giving a talk to the Dane County Genealogical Society tonight.
Oral History Questions are interesting to investigate not only for yourself but also when thinking about talking to family members during your genealogy project.
I’m always interested in when we start to develop our first memories.
So what is the first memory?, is a good question. One of my first memories is when I was about 3 years old, I remember being at my grandparents house and sitting next to a gentleman who is much older playing a banjo. I don’t know who that person was but it was a summer party and I know that the person probably was a friend of my grandfather’s because my grandfather also played the banjo.
Another question to consider is who’s the oldest relative you remember and what might you remember about that person?
Probably the oldest relative that I remember would be my father’s mother or my grandma. She was quite old when I remember her about 81. My father was the last child she had out of 10. So I remember her when I was real small probably about 5/6 years old, she stayed with my family and took care of me when my parents went out with friends. I don’t remember her real well but I do remember her presence especially in her own house, her talking to me, holding me and mending a stuffed animal I loved as a child. Thanks Grandma Rettammel.
Here are some tips for getting yourself writing about your family genealogy.
1)Write what you know right now. 2)Focus on one area at a time. 3)Revisit what you wrote.
4)Have someone to read what you wrote.
5)Lastly incorporate usual and unusual items in your story to engage your reader and to put your story in context.
Recently I was at a talk and one of the things to think about is how to present your story of genealogy to others. Some of the ways to do this are as a narrative, doing a story through words, secondly a collection in a three ring binder, third use Shutterfly Book which is a tool you can find on the web to tell a story with pictures, finally using video, & a website that you tell your families story.
There are positives and negatives with each. One concern is privacy of your data and family history. On positive you get your history out for others to connect with or learn from.
Either way putting together a Book or written reports is so valuable to future family members and researchers.
Celebrate with the ones you love and be safe.
There are many goals one can have in 2016. One goal to think about is, what do I hope to accomplish for my family history project? As a project manager at my job and a Genealogist too, I am asked to have project plans laid out, which include milestones. Milestones are points on a timeline that indicate work parts of a plan are accomplished or expect to be accomplished to meet a goal, like finishing your Family History or some part of it.
So do you have family history project milestones included in your 2016 genealogy plan? I hope you do.
I know from my own experience that maintaining plans without milestone markers can lead to frustration, or not knowing when one part of project is done before moving to another component. All this can lead to being scattered and not focused on the overall goal. To keep genealogy fun and long lasting, pace your effort or ask for or seek help, such as a professional genealogist.
Happy Holidays.
With the advent of the holiday season we gather with friends family and other acquaintances. Just a reminder that with digital film taking we also have to be aware of how genealogist collect and store pictures.
Some ideas to organize this stuff is to order it by item description, digital file name, and location of origin where you keep it, key words such as a Christmas with Grandma, and even a thumbnail image.
Rettammel Genealogy Service 