The Douglas Archives

A collection of historical and genalogical records

Imagine if you could listen to your great grandmother tell her life story! She talks about her childhood - where she lived, went to school; about meeting her grandparents; recounting her anecdotes, etc.

Now, fast forward to the next family meet up, and quizing family members about your genealogy quest. The chances are that they will demurr when asked if you can record the conversation.

How sad!

So what is the alternative?  It is pen and paper, I suppose. Do you travel prepared?  I like to take a notepad in a conference folder (I have lots of freebies collected over the years.  They are a history in themselves.) I recently learnt to take two notepads - one lined as usual, and one with a faint graph background.  This is used to make drawings, map outlines, etc, even family trees, which all help to record what I have been told, or have seen. And I like to take my camera.

Looking at some of the new style Facebook pages - the ones with the large photos across the top - I realise I have been missing opportunities to photograph family members in interesting places that have an historical context.

And then everything has to be transcribed and filed.  Umm.  I am not good at that!

Any advice on getting those recordings?

Views: 22

Add a Comment

You need to be a member of The Douglas Archives to add comments!

Join The Douglas Archives

Making conections

The more information you can give about the people you mention, the more chance there is of someone else connecting with your family.

Dates and places of births, deaths and marriages all help to place families.

Professions also help.

'My great-grandmother mother was a Douglas from Montrose' does not give many clues to follow up! But a bit of flesh on the bones makes further research possible. But if we are told who she married, what his profession was and where the children were baptised, then we can get to work.

Maybe it is time to update the information in your profile?


© 2024   Created by William Douglas.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service