Write Your Own Story
I believe it's important to write your own story whilst you are able. Otherwise people like me will come along after you've gone and put together a story about your life with the only tools we have available which is your ancestry and the events of the day gathered through research.
Beyond that it is just imagination and speculation.
My personal view, about your life can quite frankly be way off, but who's around to dispute it. Only you know your life and what it was really like.
How many times have you thought, "Gee! I wish I had asked my grandmother or grandfather about that" or "I know there was something about uncle Fred, but I was too young and not paying attention".
If we think hard enough we can come up with many things we'd like to be remembered for. Even if it just your recipe's, your garden, your work, your childhood memories or how you scrimped and saved to buy the dining room table the relatives all have their eye on.
Nobody is ordinary, we are all unique. Our lives are completely different from our parents and our children, even though we may have all lived in the same house and the same town and been part of the same events.
So write your story. It doesn't have to be a huge tome or make the best seller list.
Otherwise, I might write it and you can't come back and tap me on the shoulder and say, "You've got it all wrong, janilye".
I know where you are coming from Janilye. Wish I had asked the grandparents more questions when I was younger. Funny thing is most of us never had an interest in family history in our younger days.
I lived in the bush for some years when I was younger and remember going to the old barn down the back of the house and looking at all the things my great grandfather had collected over the years. There were rusty old black powder guns, all his gold digging tools, wagon wheels, old pots and pans, and lots more. It was like walking back into the past and I loved it.
Great grandfather was a gold digger all his life. He never trusted banks and would put his gold and money in tins and bury them around the house. Before he died, so I'm told, he told gran where to dig, but no ones knows if she found them all.
I must admit, I also dug the odd hole looking for his loot but found nothing of value, but I did find a lot of empty tins and a few old coins which I still have. They are worth nothing, but it's treasure to me.
Thanks for the memory.
I had a great aunt who was a gold digger! and what a story that is.
The clock's ticking - another year older.