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*Tracing Your Roots > First Steps in Family History > Getting Started
* Family Heirlooms 
 
A good place to begin your family history is by looking at the family papers and other heirlooms that your family may have. These can be surprisingly informative.

It is worth asking other family members, particularly older people, what they have. You might find: family bibles (that may record the births, marriages and deaths of family members going back many years), letters (containing a treasure-trove of information and family gossip) and official documents, such as military discharge documents, passports and school certificates that can help piece together a person's life.

Some of the most interesting items you may find are photographs. They are valuable because they record the lives of relations who may no longer be with us. In particular photographs can:

  • Provide an evocative portrait of long-dead relations and how they lived
  • Offer a record (although selective) of someone's life
  • Be used to jog the memories of living relations
It can, however, be difficult to work out who the person in the picture was and when and where the photo was taken. You can sometimes make a guess by looking at other identified family members in a group photograph, guessing when the clothes they were wearing were in fashion or by working out how old they look. You should remember though, people aged quicker in the past than they do now.

You can preserve the life of old photographs and documents by:

  • Keeping them out of direct sunlight
  • Keeping them cool (under a bed or in a cupboard is best)
  • Avoiding handling them - if you are going to use family photos or documents often in your research it is advisable to make photocopies or scanning them to your computer.
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Creators: Simon Fowler

 
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