We became the family historians kind of by accident. Walt always says that his brothers elected him when he wasn’t there.  At any rate, we were given a bunch of typed and hand-written sheets of family history and genealogy put together by Georgie (Walt’s mom) and Leonard Brune, Georgie’s second cousin. There were also photocopies of newspaper clippings and a few documents.

This was around 20 years ago. The first thing we did was make copies of everything. Then we stuck the originals away. Since then, I’ve learned that keeping the pages in order is recommended so that you can refer back to them if needed. I just figured it would be useful to have a set I didn’t mind marking up.

Some of the typed notes from Georgie – Rhoda was one of John Swisher Hoel/Hole’s sisters.

We wanted to get all of this organized and in a more usable form than the many pages of documents, so we looked at the options for creating a computerized database. After we looked at the family history programs that were out at the time, we chose Family Tree Maker. We are still using that, mostly because all the information is in there and we are familiar with how it works. Since I haven’t worked with other software, I don’t know much about the differences.

A family tree for Walt’s dad Carl.

We started by inputting all the names and dates we had into the program. There were fewer than 400 names at that time. I then filled in my family as best I could. We started to look at the gaps in the information. What were we missing? Where could we do research to find out more?

Where do we go from here?

Some notes from a trip to Ohio

We asked family members. We took a trip to Ohio where Walt’s father was born. I spent some time reading books about doing genealogy research. Much of our early research notes were written on legal pads – lists of questions for research and the answers we found. We would come home and add to the family tree we were building.

We started taking the laptop computer with us to use, but at the time, the batteries didn’t last very long. Our flatbed scanner traveled with us to Iowa and we started scanning in pictures and documents. Again, long lists of notes were kept on legal pads. We were traveling to Fort Madison to visit pretty regularly in the early 2000s to see Georgie. She wasn’t driving any more, so we took it in turns with Walt’s brothers to go help with errands.

The box I am currently working on. Photo albums, post cards and documents

After her death in 2004, we became the repository of family history. Many banker’s boxes of photos, slides, and documents came home with us. We are still working our way through all of the information.  As we come across data about a family member, we add it to the system. There are now over 4000 names in the data base.

As people learned we were working on family history, we were sent more information and more pictures. We continue to add to the stories of our families. We decided to start this blog in part to share some of those stories with family and others who might be interested.

Digging Deeper

There are several software options for creating a family tree. Some are free, some a purchased. Some use subscriptions to access additional features. I would suggest that if you do want to start working on your own family tree, you should do some research on the various options. Family Tree Maker, Legacy Family Tree, Gramps, and Roots Magic are some of the more well know software packages. There are plenty of others to check out. This article on the Family Tree Magazine Website (not associated with Family Tree Maker) has some good information about things to consider.