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Monday 11 July 2016

How Well Do I Know My Living Family Tree?

I'm sure you can tell by now that I am a lover of family history.  I love digging through virtual and authentic records to learn about an ancestor's past, where they grew up and moved on to start families of their own.


But, just in the last few weeks, I realized that I need to make sure I know the basic details about my own living relatives.  What if tomorrow, or even today, something happens in which I lose contact with a large portion of my family?  What valuable information might I never know?  What if my posterity will one day rely on me only to pass along that information?  I can only imagine how disappointed they would feel if I didn't have the answers to their questions.

I must sound like a grandmother with those kinds of thoughts.  Isn't it only for grandparents to be concerned about passing on their heritage?  Or someone who knows they will die soon of some fatal disease?

Thank goodness, I'm still young and I don't know of any fatal disease withering me away!  (Of course, that never takes away the possibility that I might not be alive tomorrow or next week.)  I am also still full of the kinds of questions that young people might have about their family's relationships.

So... "I'm my own grand[ma]"?


The Challenge

I am currently adding to my family tree any details I can about my living relatives, especially of those I may never meet in person.  I've added most living relatives to my tree that are older than my parents, but not many cousins or younger posterity of my parents' generation.  I have access to, but I really should list full namesbirth dates and places, spouses and marriage or (so commonly now) divorce dates, and children's names for those people so that I have the information for myself.  I suppose updating phone numbers, addresses and even email addresses would be useful in case I want to stay in contact.

I know it'll be easy (just time-consuming) to gather and add information for my dad's side of the tree, but it'll be a little more difficult when doing my mom's side.  My mom hasn't see her family much since most of them live in the United States and she isn't up-to-date with children born into the family and who's doing what where.  If I can, I'd like to actually get to know her family.  That's my challenge.


Do you need to do this too?  What difficulties have you come across?

Next week's topic: [Our Family Advent Calendar 2016 - #LIGHTtheWORLD]