Summer is here, and that can mean our schedules are less busy, more time with family, and longer days. Summer can also include family vacations, family reunions, or even genealogy road trips. Whether you have a big multi-generation vacation planned or a staycation, family history can always be incorporated in your plans.
If you are attending a family reunion, make sure to make time to talk with the elders in your family. Family reunions are a great opportunity to ask questions and get your family's oral history. With today's technology most of us have a voice recorder, video camera, and digital camera at our fingertips with a smart phone. And these family memories that you capture this summer can easily be shared with other family member through iCloud, Google drive, and social media. Family reunions are also a great time to get multi-generational photos.
If your family is going on a vacation, see how you can incorporate some family history into your trip. Start a family tradition of taking a photo in front of a tourist attraction or have the kids keep a vacation journal. Vacations can also be a great time to get some research completed if you are going to a city with a national or regional archive. You may be visiting a city that has a repository or a library with genealogy resources that aren't available in your hometown that you can take advantage of.
If you don't have any vacations planned, then the summer is a good time to review your research plan and start working on a brick wall that you may have. If you live close to a college or university, summer is a great time to visit their library to see what genealogy collections they have available and talk with a librarian or archivist. Many colleges and university libraries have books, manuscripts, microfilms, and other collections from different parts of the country. If you live within driving distance of your ancestral home, you could take a day trip there and visit the local library, court house, or cemetery.
For me summer has always been about food, family, and fun. Summer was a time when aunts, uncles, and cousins came to town for visits. Longer days meant more time spent with cousins visiting from out of town. Summer meant BBQs and fish fries any day of the week not just on weekends. That's part of the reason that summer is my favorite season.
Genealogy and family history are more than just collecting names and dates. It is also about spending time with family, making memories, and sharing those memories. Let us know what some of your favorite summer memories are, and how you will be making summer memories this year. Share your summertime photos with us on Facebook and Twitter using #AAHGSsummerphotos
Written by
AAHGS Member and Blogger
Trisha Mays-Cummings
journeythroughthegenerations.com
