It's never too early to start coloring in the family tree! |
After the reunion in July, I was determined to improve my communication with family
members both nearby and far away. After all, there is only so much that I can
do with regard to genealogy and it is always best to be in communication with
numerous family members trying to fill in the different pieces rather than all
of use trying to find all of the answers on our own. Additionally, we all have
access to different documents, photos, and stories that we should be sharing
with one another. That might have been the biggest takeaway from the weekend,
there is so much that we all possess and it would be nice for us all to have
access to those pieces of the picture and leaves of the tree.
While
in the past this would have been a more exaggerated process full of letters and
a lot of postage. That isn’t the reality in which we live today. While there
are some that still require the letters, phone calls, and face to face
meetings, most can be accomplished through email and social media (I will write
about genealogy specific online tools in a future post). Thankfully, there has
already been a group formed on Facebook to help facilitate those communications
and I have been able to connect with those who were in attendance as well as
those who were unable to make it over the past couple of months.
Sometimes
it is also these simple things that get other family members interest in family
history. I have been able to connect with many family members, some of whom to
which I have not previously spoken, based on the simple fact that they want to
learn more about the family. In other instances, different stories have been
shared… some I have heard before while others are completely new to me. I doubt
that the correspondences would have come as easily through any other means
other than Facebook or email.
Of
course, there are a lot more stories that have yet to be told and information
that hasn’t as of yet been shared but the lines of communication are open and I
am looking forward to collecting and sharing these new tidbits with the rest of
the family. Additionally, there is an open invitation to family members (and
other with stories they would like to share) to write a post to be included on
this blog (the author will receive full credit). So, the reunion turned out to
last much longer than the two days in Virginia, and I expect it to continue
until we are able to get together again five years from now… we should have a
much more colorful and complete tree by then.
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