Why it's important to know your own family history & hire a good researcher

Genealogy is the technical word for tracing your family history. It is an ancient art, having been practiced since the dawn of civilization. In fact, primitive forms of genealogy would have been the crux of early societies, which were often grounded on kinship based structures and that practiced religions centered on ancestor worship. As societies developed, monarchs, aristocratic families and even religious leaders were legitimized by being able to demonstrate their blood lineage.

During the 20th century, genealogy was embraced by hobbyists. Books like Roots (in which an African American author traced his ancestry back to the days of slavery) popularized genealogy and showed that genealogy isn’t just for people with wealthy families or noble ancestry. The hobbyist can work together with a professional researcher, who will use all the evidence to create a story and discover new facts.

There are many reasons to know your family history: to have a living connection to the past, to trace and find your origins and roots, and to be informed about vital hereditary information. Whatever your reasons are for wanting to preserve your family history – contacting a private researcher to help you start your genealogical journey is a great move.

As the subject of genealogy continues to grow in popularity, more people want to know more about where they come from and connect with long lost family members. But, the question many people ask is "where do I start?" What kinds of documents can I get access to? What questions should I ask existing family members? Just getting started can be overwhelming for a beginner, and this is where collaborating with a researcher can save you time, money and energy.

With your personal reseacher to giude you, you'll have the opportunity to collaborate on gathering evidence together, after all - two heads are better than one.

Genealogy is an inter-generational activity that will allow also allow other family members an opportunity to share their life story, and also help younger generations learn about history in a uniquely personal and captivating way.

The pastime of genealogy allows families to connect by sharing stories and passing those stories down to younger generations. For adults wanting to capture the memories of their parents and explore the lives of their Grandparents and Great grand[arents, working with an experienced researcher can make the process much easier.

Before you and your researcher get started, there are a few things YOU can do to help:

• Talk to your relatives, especially the older members of your family. Most love to re-tell stories from the past, and they can be an absolute goldmine of information.

• Write down all the details shared with you, and keep a record of names, birth places, marriages and divorces, children and deaths.

• Ask to look at and if possble, borrow any old family photographs or albums, You can photocopy them or scan them digitally for safekeeping . Make sure you record the names of all the people in the photograhs and any other facts about when and where they were taken. .

Whether you are at the beginning of tracing your roots, or you already have a compilation of information shared by family members – we all have an opportunity to continue our family history preservation efforts, one memory at a time.

Working with a researcher can help you to preserve your family history in a number of ways:

• They can help you create am offlline family tree that will keep all information safe and accessible

• They can preserve your family history and present stories, documents and photographs to you in a way thats easy to understand and fun to read.

• They can Help you conect & collaborate with others who may be researching the same ancestors and familires

If you are starting out on a genealogy journey, bring a researcher along with you for extra support and advice. Dont let yourself get flustered by things