Putting Flesh on the Bones

Indeed, the family tree prints out onto 180 sheets of paper and covers the entire wall of the den when you piece it all together. But, as impressive as it looks, it just isn't enough. What about all these names? Are they just names and dates filled into slots or do they seem like real people to you?

Relating a family tree to someone else is pretty much a non-event. The most common question I get is, "How far back have you gone?" Those not in the family have little interest in seeing a list of your ancestors cascading backwards through time. But if you have stories to tell about those same people, it becomes interesting!

By putting flesh on the bones of your family, you can tie yourself into the very fabric of history. It's a lot easier to get your children interested in the Civil War if you can show a family member was a part of it. The founder of Rhode Island is certainly not exciting, unless Roger Williams happens to be an ancestor.

How do you make them come alive? The purpose of this topic is to provide you help in tracking down the information that can make the letters and numbers become a real person, someone you can picture in your mind. Yes, that person might be a scoundrel, or they may be a hero. They may just be an ordinary person, living a life without any special significance other than without them, you wouldn't be here. And even if you can't conjure up a picture of the individual, you can certainly picture the town or village they lived in, and imagine what life was like at that point in history.

And by knowing more about your ancestors, you greatly increase the possibilities of finding additional information about them. By being more aware of their context in both a geographical and historical sense, you will often find additional information that really makes them real. The 2000 Swarthout Family Reunion (including Swartwout, Swartout and Swartwood!) was held in Geneva, New York. (If you are interested in the family, visit my Swarthout Family web site. ) One reason I arranged to go was that it was just a few miles from where my father was born and his ancestors resided for many years. The feeling I got having actually seen the grave stones of my ancestors, rather than just reading the inscriptions published in the book, can't be accurately described.

And the tears I have wept, reading a father's words printed in the paper about the loss of a son or daughter, or even a father-in-law! Looking at my daughters, I can really relate to the anguish pouring through the print. I can see the mixed emotions of having the obituary of a son recorded in the same paper with the birth of a daughter. Or the horror of losing four children in as many weeks to influenza.

Yes, many of our ancestors will remain shadowy figures, known only by words inscribed in a family Bible or on a piece of weathered marble. But some of them have left letters, diaries, or brave deeds, that will bring them alive to ourselves and, if we record it properly, for generations to come. They lived in times where people knew their neighbors and would share information whenever they got together. Long before the telephone and the internet we use so often, the written word, printed or penned, was the primary means of communication.

Let's see if together we can find those small pieces of information that can make them all seem real!