{"id":18947,"date":"2017-01-18T10:56:43","date_gmt":"2017-01-18T15:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=18947"},"modified":"2017-01-18T10:56:43","modified_gmt":"2017-01-18T15:56:43","slug":"why-are-you-compiling-your-family-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/why-are-you-compiling-your-family-history.html","title":{"rendered":"Why Are You Compiling Your Family History?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In about 1965, I was teaching a beginner course in family history at the Darien Historical Society in Darien, Connecticut.<\/p>\n

Every week the class gathered, including an elderly gentleman who always wore a dark suit and carried a cane and hat \u2013 much like the man in this painting.<\/p>\n

\"Painting:<\/a>
Painting: \u201cPortrait of an Elderly Gentleman\u201d by George Percy Jacomb-Hood, 1895. Credit: National Railway Museum, York, England.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I asked the class one night: why was it that they were interested in documenting their family history?<\/p>\n

Mind you, this was years before Alex Haley\u2019s book, Roots<\/em>, was made into a television series (1977) that galvanized the nation and made family history so popular in the country.<\/p>\n

In 1965, it was not as common for people to work on their genealogy.<\/p>\n

This elderly man stood and said: \u201cMy sister was the kindest person I have ever known. She never married \u2013 and if I don\u2019t write our family history, no one will ever remember her.\u201d<\/p>\n

I thought that was the best reason I had ever heard.<\/p>\n

Document your family\u2019s stories.
\nUncover every story \u2013 remember them, and pass them down in the family.<\/p>\n

Why are you compiling your family history? Please tell us in the comments section below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An article about an elderly gentleman who gave a poignant answer when asked why he was compiling his family history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12557],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-18947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genealogy-stories","tag-genealogy"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/illustration-0118-2017-featured-graphic-elderly-man.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}