A recent survey by Ancestry.com found that 53% of the Americans who were polled could not name all four grandparents.
This month’s release of the 1950 census might help with this gap in family knowledge. More than 60% of the people surveyed said they wanted to know more about their family history. Those that specified said they wanted to know more about what life was like for their parents in earlier times. So I ask readers, do you know your four grandparents and any step grandparents? Did you have a baby book created when you were born, where some of this information might be written down? Have you bought one for your own children and grandchildren so you can record information on your ancestors? I have one a century old that was my mother’s. It’s a great treasure with a family chart filled out in 1922. Did her cousins of the same generation have such? I have never seen any for them.
Another good way to remember and honor at least our grandparents, if not other generations, is to be sure family pictures are copied and given to near kin, with labels. Or one could get a set of ancestral photos framed together, so that it’s clear who was who.
Genealogists should not just assume that everyone in their immediate family is as interested as we are, as we know they are not. But you should take it upon yourself to share the minimum information so that other family members have it. Hopefully, it will stick with them.
African American resources at Georgia Archives
The Georgia Archives has a number of research guides to its collection. One is on African American Resources. To find it, go to GeorgiaArchives.org, then under Menu, go to “Research,” and it’s among the list of numerous research guides.
Ukraine’s National Archives
In war-torn Ukraine, the National Archives website at archives.gov.ua/en shows the importance of digitizing records and putting them online to preserve information.
Contact Kenneth H. Thomas Jr., P. O. Box 901, Decatur, Ga,. 30031 or www.kenthomasongenealogy.com.
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