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January 10, 2012

January Genealogy Challenge: Write an Ancestor Tribute

This month the Genealogy Challenge I'm issuing is to create a tribute page to one ancestor. What I mean by that is - pick an ancestor and write your memories of that person.

Maybe that would be your grandmother or grandfather. Or perhaps your grandmother told you stories of her mom so even though you didn't personally know her, you do know stories about her.

The tribute is not dry facts such as where the person was during each census year. It's not about those facts we find when we are researching. It's about your memories, both the good and the bad!

My suggestion is you keep your Ancestor Tribute to one page double-sided if you want to write a lot, or just one side. It doesn't take long - you just let the words flow and it doesn't have to be in chronological order. It's just your thoughts and memories coming out quickly.

I wrote one and it went so fast that I wrote several others! I got a little fancy with a few and added photos but I kept my Ancestor Tributes to one page. I'm really happy with them and plan to do more and put them into a little coil-bound "book" to share with my siblings.

 Ancestor Tribute page for my great-grandmother. I never knew her but my grandmother and my aunts told me many stories so I was able to write a page about her.

The Ancestor Tribute pages are memories. They might not be accurate. They might be lies, half-truths or misunderstood or half-remembered information. But they have value as they bring the ancestor to life. Did you hear that Grandpa Joe made dandelion wine? Write it down in his Tribute page!

Did Grandma make silly faces at the table? Did you overhear her telling a story about her mother? Write it all down.

My grandfather died before I was born but my Tribute page is based on things my father, Uncle Clare and my mom and aunt told me.

And now I'm off to write a few more. I hope you'll take a half hour and write at least one Ancestor Tribute page this month. If you enjoy it, write more! Share them with family.

6 comments:

Judith Richards Shubert said...

Wonderful idea! I think any of us could do the same ~ just taking the time to do it. A great New Year's resolution.

Susie said...

This is a really great idea, I'm going to try it! Just wondering what program you used to put it together and if you used a template? Thanks!

Olive Tree Genealogy said...

Susie - glad you like the idea! Yes I used Pages on my MacBook Air. It's a word processing program with some very nice templates.

I used the fancy template for my grandmother but simpler ones for other Ancestor Tribute pages.

Lorine

Julie Goucher said...

What a great idea. I did start something last year, then got sidetracked with extra research. Here's to having another go!

Sandra Shultz Braun said...

Lorine, I am wondering if we might be kin. My maiden name was Shultz.
Heinrich Christoff Shultz b. 1685 in Hess-Darmstadt Germany. Johan Martin Shultz b.Abt. 1740 in Manchester, Lancaster CO, PA. Martin Van Buren Shultz b. January 21, 1832 in Claiborne CO, TN. My grandfather: William Benjamin Shultz b. December 11, 1883 in Houston, Harris CO. , TX Sandra

Olive Tree Genealogy said...

Sandra - my deceased husband was the Schulze, not me. And his ancestors came from Germany to Yorkshire England ca 1867 then to Canada 1950s.

The furthest back Schulze male was born in Hanover, his wife in Kiel.

No connection that I see and the name Schulze is like Smith :-)