SNGF - If I Knew Then What I Know Now...

Randy Seaver over a Genea-Musings has given genealogists across the World another evening of Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – to describe what I would do differently If I Knew Then What I Know Now…

If I Knew Then What I Know Now…I would have asked my older relatives many more questions.

I had 6 of my 8 great-grandparents alive until I was in my early 20s. I was certainly old enough by then to sit down with them, hook up a video camera or digital recorder, pull out a notebook and pen and start asking questions and writing answers down! Can you imagine how much time I could have saved?

Can you imagine how many brick walls I could probably have avoided had I done this

And the photos…I would have had gobs of photos in my collection by now. Photos that are now probably in some step-2^nd-grand-cousin-5x-removed’s ex-wife’s attic molding away!

This should be a lesson to all of you out there with kids. Teach them how to interview at least one elderly relative. Make it a special project for them. Have them do a video interview, write about it in a journal or in a scrapbook. And then save it. (Preferably in an archive safe box.) Oh and make sure they ask for pictures! And don’t forget to label them. (With an archive safe pen.)  

What are your regrets?