Well-written family biographies are a beautiful way to remember your family’s heritage. What did your ancestor do for a living? Where did they live? If you want more than just names, dates, and places, we can help!
Tracing Your Ancestors: Going Beyond Dates & Places
When you’re working on your genealogy it is easy to get lost in the search for names, dates, and places in an effort to extend your family lines as far as possible. This information is incredibly important because those details are what help us make sure we are tracing the correct line and tying generations together accurately. But always keep in mind that your ancestors were actual living people! They had homes, families, life events, careers, failures, successes…just like we do today. Learning about the lives of our ancestors can be such a rewarding experience. It can help us (and our children and grandchildren) feel connected to those who came before us, and help us understand and maybe even better appreciate where and who we are today.
Using Genealogy Records to Write Family Biographies
Our ancestors were not simply born, got married, and died; their lives were interwoven with the lives of others around them and influenced by local, national, and even world events. Whatever records they left behind, whether it be census records, land records, a will, photographs, even old receipts, provide insights into the details of their lives. More general records, such as local newspapers or contemporary maps of the places they lived, deliver a glimpse into their world.
By looking at clues on various historical documents (usually the same ones you already used to learn names, dates, and places!), you can often find clues to things like: where your ancestor lived, where they worked, what they did for a living, what life was like in that city/town when they lived there, whether they served in the military – and information about that service, where they got married, what health issues they might have had, information about their education, etc. You can even find information about who their friends and neighbors were. Using those clues, you can then dig deeper to fill in details about the life of that ancestor, and get a better picture of who they were as a person.
Often you can even use those details to find photographs of important places or events – like the home where your ancestors lived, the church they were married in, the ship they served on in WWI, the company they worked for, the school they attended, and many other things. Photographs really help bring the information to life, and add another layer of depth to the biographical details about your ancestor.
Using historical context, and genealogical and social records, as professional family biographers we put life back into family history. By studying clues from mundane records and minutiae, we can reconstruct many aspects of your ancestor’s lives.
Our Team of Genealogists Are Experts at Writing Family Biographies
At Legacy Tree Genealogists, we love to learn about individuals and write biographies as much as we love extending family lines. If you have an ancestor you’d like to learn more about, our team of professional researchers would be happy to dig into the details and write the story of your ancestor’s life for you and your family to enjoy for generations to come.
Preserving Your Legacy
When your family biography is complete you can choose whether you want it presented in our deluxe binder (included in the price of your project), or turned into a beautiful professionally designed and custom made hardbound family history book (billed separately), which will instantly become a treasured family heirloom.