Chronicles of a Family Historian and Compiling the Family History

My chronicles are intended to serve several uses. First it will be somewhat of a journal to log the steps that I am taking to organize the information I have and collect, the research I undertake and challenges I face in compiling my family history. Second, I will share my experiences with you the reader. I will share my successes, my learning experiences, resources I discover and perhaps most important of all, my learning experiences where I made and make mistakes. I will especially talk about my missed opportunities over the years by my dabbling in genealogy, rather than diligently pursuing it when irreplaceable information was at hand and is now gone forever. By sharing not only my successes but my failures and mistakes I will give readers the opportunity to learn from my shortcomings. And, by allowing others to comment, this blog can become a learning opportunity for everyone as well as me.

In my opinion, compilation of one’s family history is more than just collecting the names of ancestors with the date and place of their birth; who they married and when, if they did so; building a list of their children, if they had any; and including when and where they died; and sticking them in a family tree or a genealogical chart. That might be interesting stuff and is valuable as a part of the overall family history, but it is not the family history.

Stephen E. Amborse is reported to have said in 1996: “The important part of history is the last five letters of the word.” So it is that I believe the most important part of my family history is the stories that bring my ancestors and their descendants alive. By telling their stories I make them real people with their happiness, their sorrow, their challenges, their circumstances, their surroundings, their successes, their failures and perhaps by shedding some light on their love lives and disappointments. Consequently, this makes my entire family history come alive and makes it much more meaningful and interesting to me and those who read it than what would otherwise be nothing more than essentially a list of dead people. While I understand that it is sometimes difficult, if not impossible, to gather stories about some of my ancestors and descendants, it is worth the effort and can be extremely rewarding when I do find something that others may not have been able to find. And why not make my family history come alive with the stories of my people?

I will over the weeks, months and years attempt to keep my chronicles interesting and beneficial to all who read. And, for those specifically interested in the Fisher, Musselman and allied family histories, I hope to provide you valuable information and insight concerning “from whence we hail!”