I completed my grandfather's biography in May, after working on it for seven or eight months. I thought it would take about three months. Silly me.
It consumed me.
I became obsessed with writing about my grandfather, going down all the research rabbit holes, and perusing all the photos and documents I could find. It turned out to be 200 pages!
I call it my Opus.
Now I'm researching and writing my father's biography. Luckily, Dad was the family historian and saved everything. I mean, EVerything! Newspaper snippets, tickets, documents, photos, and emphemera of his life and the lives of his parents and his brother are contained in files and photo albums. And I'm lucky enough to have it.
Unfortunately, the albums aren't always in chronological order. This has been a bane for me. I've gotten up from my computer more than once because of frustration because events don't fit the timeline.
But I pray about it. I pray Heavenly Father will help me through it and I pray my dad will guide me in the right direction. Often, a light bulb will go on and I will see the light!
Also unfortunately, my father kept our albums growing up in separate kids' albums--he had eight. Each time a new child was born, he would start a new album. Therefore, my little sister, the youngest, has all the photos after 1966. That means my birthdays, my sibs' birthdays, holidays, proms, and any other events are in her album--and she doesn't want to share. Then she told me she looked in her album and all the photos are stuck together. ARGH! None were shared and now none can be shared.
I am the oldest and have a photo album from 1954-1956, when my brother was born, and one from my grandparents until Easter 1960. After that, I'm at the mercy of my siblings, some of whom are not forthcoming with pictures. Some are. Once I get past 1960, I don't know if I'll have much to go on for writing about my dad.
I've learned that pictures are worth a thousand words. I've written from photographs. They jog memories, and can lead to research of the time period.
I hope and pray my siblings will share. Some have. I hope the ones who haven't will.
And tomorrow I'm going to go to the local Family History Center and see about volunteering. I will be almost totally immersed in family history then.
Family history . . . it's important. Ask me why.
