With the holidays approaching, now is a great time to look through your genealogy research to see whether there is anything that you should be inquiring about during the upcoming season of family gatherings. Chances are that you will see at least a few of your relatives on Thanksgiving, Christmas, or whichever holidays your family celebrates. Festive gatherings are a great time to catch up on what everyone has been doing lately. They are also a great time to talk about family history and family memories.
When you go through your files, think about who you will be seeing and when. Are there any things that you have done like pedigree charts, scrapbooks, or family history writing that you would like to bring along to one or more of your family gatherings so that you can share them with others? Also, what information are you looking for. Will you be seeing anyone who might have clues that could help you break through that brick wall or lead you in the right direction towards finding that elusive ancestor? It is always useful to plan ahead because it is hard to remember all of those things while you are in the middle of a festive gathering.
If you like to write family history, this is also a great season for doing some family interviewing. As with the research mentioned above, you will want to plan ahead so that you do not forget what you wanted to do at each of the gatherings that you will be attending. You can plan to do some formal interviewing by arranging with family members ahead of time so that they do not feel put on the spot. Alternatively, you can employ my favorite family history interviewing technique – the non interview. This stealthy form of sleuthing consists of knowing what questions you want to ask of which family members, and then nonchalantly working them into the conversations that you have with them during the holidays. No one gets put on the spot, and you may get more interesting information than you would if you went with a traditional interview format.
Photo by kakisky on morguefile.com.