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| We all seem to perk up when we find out we are related to a famous person, royalty, a notorious outlaw or someone of "star" quality. I was quite excited and proud when I originally thought my great, great, great, great grandmother Sarah Ruttle was the sister of Barbara Heck (Ruttle), the acclaimed Mother of the Methodist Church in North America. I was disappointed when I found out "my" Barbara Ruttle was not "the" Barbara Ruttle. | |
| One seasoned researcher told me that most people do have a famous person "somewhere" in their family history. Although, the vast majority of your family will be "ordinary" people. They might not be famous, but definitely special because they all helped form the fabric of our world. Our family histories are really about the clothe that binds us all together. |  |
| Therefore, one of the most important
aspects of a family history, in my humble opinion, is to capture the ordinary lives of
ordinary people. I call this the "Life & Times" of our relatives. To do
this, I suggest the W5 approach: when, where, what, who, why and how If you use this approach to the questions you ask your family members, chances are you will get a broader view of their life and times. When asking questions of your family members, please be aware of their feelings toward the questions you ask. Some people don’t what to talk about sensitive family matters. I found that most of my relatives didn’t want to talk about the "black sheep" of the family. Heck, those were the people I was most interested in! I feel they add some "colour" to a family history. Some times it is difficult to get specific dates such as "What date did you start elementary/public school? We have to think that this could have been 30, 40, 50, 60 years ago. Sometimes I have a difficult time remembering dates from a month ago! But if you ask "What do you remember most about public school?", this will probably start you off on a series of events related to public school. Here is a start on some ordinary questions. (Remember the W5 approach.) What is the first thing you remember as a child, what was your happiest/saddest time as a child/adult, what is your favourite colour, your favourite food, the car you liked driving the most, the craziest thing that ever happened to you, the most trouble you got into, the best thing that ever happened to you, the most memorable event in your life, do you play any sports/musical instruments, who/how influenced you the most in your life, your worst teacher, your best teacher, your best friend, the wildest/hottest clothes you ever wore, the best thing that happened to you, the luckiest thing that ever happened, did you ever get in trouble at school, did you ever skip/fail any grades in school , did you attend public/secondary (continuation)/ college/university, did you ever get in trouble with the law, where else have you travelled, what was the favourite place you traveled to, did you attend church, what church denomination, how old were you when you started/stopped attending church, did you fight in any of the wars (WW1, WW2, etc), what was the best/worst thing about the war, etc, etc. Once you have discovered some of the "heart" of your family, it is time to work on the "body". |
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