Someone told me that forty years ago, so it must be true.
It could have been Grandma, your beloved high school history teacher, or someone standing next to you in line at the grocery store.
I remember it correctly, even though I was told years ago and never wrote it down.
Do you remember with exact, precise recollection what you were told by someone a month ago?
Check out those assumptions. Double check what you think you remember and look into those beliefs you have about your ancestor and history–you might be wrong. Don’t just do a quick Google search on the internet to see if your knowledge is correct. Anyone can post anything online. Find sources that are reputable.
You might also be right. And, if you are, you will have found evidence to back up the claim and may have even learned new information in the process.
8 Responses
I am planning on writing them down so as I work on my history I can either confirm or deny the claim. This just reminded me of a couple of things to do. Thank u.
So, I know this one well! I pride myself on my memory – but hey, that memory can be wrong! 🙂 In the 1970’s, I was at my great-aunt’s house, looking through her amazing collection of family memorabilia when I came across a clipping from a newspaper with a story about her brother’s dying. Now, I know her numerous siblings but I’d never heard of this one and was shocked. When I asked her about this brother, she said that he didn’t like their step-mother and “went his own way.”
Fast forward to a few years ago, I’m telling my sister this story. I said that he died in his 50’s in a fire. I was so sure. Well, after a lot of research she found that he was in a hotel fire and died a few days later – in the 1950’s! No, he wasn’t in his 50’s – the event was in the 1950’s. Such a small detail – but in researching him, it was an important detail. Now I “write it down, write it down, write it down”!!
My sisters and I are 10 and 12 years apart. We grew up in the same house, but you would never know it. We each have distinctly different memories about the same events. It’s all context and how the event was perceived by you at the time. I never believe a family story.. I use it as a hint, only. As we age, we find our memories changing. So, what grandma wrote down about the family when she was older may be true…. but it may just be her perception of the event. Shoot, my grandparents had a hard time remembering our names… and we saw them almost every weekend 🙂
I started writing “Granmom’s Memories”. My daughter was reading it and said, “This isn’t the way I remember that”. I told her the title was “Granmom’s” Memories and she needed to write “Vanessa’s Memories”, not try to correct mine.
Good point. Any two people will remember things differently–sometimes slightly and sometimes significantly.
Sage advice. I was just helping out a 7th cousin, once removed with information about our family on her Wikitree page. I wrote her a private message. In that brief amount of time, I got the married name of the subject mixed up with a older sister of hers. I had to stop and pause for a moment, to better recall what I had just written to her. She’d left out the eldest sister in the family. I gave her the stats for her from my own notes. Then, in looking at my cousin’s page again, I saw a married name. My mind was still on the one she’d omitted, and I thought she’d made an error. I did a double-check on my notes to see the married name she had was quite correct. So glad, I didn’t pass on my blunder. :O
It’s real easy to make an honest mistake. I’ve tried to stop replying “on the fly” with details, but sometimes it is still easy to make a mistake especially if the family uses the same first names repeatedly.
[…] In his Genealogy Tip of the Day, Michael John Neill talks about how to be sure that what we remember is correct. I am sorry to say that I often find myself remembering things wrong. Read his article How Do You Know? […]