Write a story of the Life of Ancestor

I think it is a good practice to write stories of your ancestors starting with the people you know best remembering that you too will someday be an ancestor. I started with my parents first my mother’s story then my father’s story all the while updating my own story. I tried to get my brother to write his own story he says when the spirit moves him. If writing about the living you have to respect their rights and ask them if you can and what to include and what to leave out. It easier to stick to the dead I think everyone has a story to tell and Genealogist yet to be born might be interested.

          Those that were born in the last hundred years or so might have photos that can add greatly to their story after all a picture is worth a thousand words. I have been lucky in that both my parents and my wife’s parents took or had taken enough photo to chronicle their lives.

          I use the sources such as Birth, Baptism and Marriage Certificates,  Census in the US from 1790 to 1940 (except 1890), UK Census from 1841 to 1911, some States also have Censuses such has New York State, The Valuations in both UK and Ireland and Death Certificates. I found these to be of great help in writing the story of those I know and the only thing you can go by for those distance ancestors. When I was writing my mother’s story I remembered her saying that she was born in Wishaw Scotland, but raised in Alva Scotland. My mother’s birth certificate confirmed that she was born in Wishaw in 1909, but the 1911 UK Census says she was living with parents on the Isle of Arran in Brodick her father working on a farm. Now that makes sense of her story of bring her father a Potato for his lunch and dropping it into a cow paddy pushing it off and giving it to her father. Naturally the more information the better the story and might put their lives in some prospective.