Aunt Myrtle's Inspiration for our Family History

Aunt Myrtle's Inspiration

There usually is a key event that starts one on their journey through their family history. I had two key events. The first key event came along when Aunt Myrtle gave a little black binder to all my first cousins with information about the family she had collected. She had been collecting marriage announcements and obituaries for years and had typed the information to form a family history. I thought it was worthy of note but I was not overly interested at the time, and stuck it on the shelf in the closet.

The second key event was the death of my mother. My father had passed away 5 years earlier. The loss of both my parents really came into focus when I started thinking about stories they had told me. Throughout my life, my memory (or lack thereof) has given me some grief. I have gotten into some trouble from forgetting a birthday or an appointment. I have always cherished pictures because they help me to remember instances in my life. One day as I was looking at pictures in my parent's albums, I could not remember who all the people were. I kind of panicked and thought about how many of Mom and Dad’s stories I could not remember. This was the key event that really started me on the Mills family tree.

I dug out Aunt Myrtle’s family history binder, with updated pages she had sent. I decided to enter her information on the computer so it would be easier to update with new births and the passing of my relatives. I thought this would be an easy and short task. Ha, ha, ha. Was I ever wrong! It has been 5 years since I started, and I still am not finished. Yes, I have over 140 pages of births and deaths typed into a Microsoft Word document. No, I still haven’t progressed to a family history computer program. I have over 100 pages of history related stories and articles that I have condensed down from local histories to give a sense of what it was like when my ancestors lived. I have asked my relatives to write "Life and Times" articles, but still it is not finished. Will it ever be complete? Will some of my relatives that I have asked over and over again for their particular "family branch" ever get their information to me? And, I am only talking about the Mills Family History. And, I am only talking about one branch of the Mills Family History that starts with my great, great, great grandparents John and Elizabeth (Woods) Mills. I am only talking about the Mills branch that comes down through my great, great grandparents Joseph and Harriet (Lowes) Mills. And, I am only talking about the male side of the family tree. I am not talking about the family tree of my mother – her father and mother’s trees. I am not talking about my grandmother’s mother and father's family trees. Etc, etc. I am not sure where one stops when researching "the" family tree. It could be endless.

A family history definitely takes a lot of ones time. It certainly helps if you can get two or three other relatives interested in helping with the family tree. Also, a relative that has that valuable commodity – time. And, it is great if you can find someone from a younger generation. In this way, you know the family history will continue into the distant future.

Aunt Myrtle’s information is priceless! If only there was some way of digitally obtaining all the history that’s stored in her memory. I keep asking Aunt Myrtle questions about the family. I guess I still don’t have it all straight in my head. Maybe because I didn’t live through the history, I have a harder time remembering the connections. All the more reason to get all the family history written down. Aunt Myrtle is still the keeper of the history. She is also the last one of her brothers and sisters to be able to tell it.

In trying to research and complete a family history, you will most probably find there are many potholes that you will bounce over. Trial and error seems to be one of my modes of learning so I have included a few tips for getting started on a family history. In this way, I hope the potholes won’t be so deep. Have fun –laugh a little, cry a little, and honour your ancestors.

We have tried to break down the family history research process into small chunks of information. It's time to get started. There are lots of other sources of genealogical information (Check out our genealogical links page).

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