Re: Hey Farml, Rob, David and All..

FarmI wrote:

> LOL. I can just picture it.  They never tell you before you go so you
can 
> get a free home cooked meal do they?

No, but to be fair, telling mum where I was going wasn't exactly high on 
my list of priorities and sometimes it had a start and an end point and 
see what in between.
> 
> How I wish I had your Mum in my family!!!!  I'm the family historian and
the 
> only person like that in our family with that sort of knowledge has
died.

Well, what is funny, is that I could get both families history from both 
sides, or parts of it, because dad's mothers line and mum's fathers line 
both came out of Victoria together and the great-grandfathers were mates.

I have been extraordinary lucky that I started when I was in my 20's, to 
try and understand who was who of the living, which made it easier 
intially, plus a few older people have done their families before. 
Pretty full back for 6 generations and patchy up to 10 generations, 
which is interesting research. Luck out in no money anywhere and no 
convict or notoriety either.

Farmers and gardeners basically, until after 1950s.

The only tip I give people is to sit down with people and just get them 
to take about what they remember and tape it. Do not do question and 
answer stuff. So many people learn their family history as stories, or 
sayings or yarns, which they can repeat very easily. I did that with my 
fathers parents for a couple of sessions and I'm still have eureka 
moments when I work out what some phrase actually meant. Things like "he 
stood up for him" turned out to be that the great-grandfathers above 
were bride and groom at a wedding. No one younger realised what it meant 
but just repeated what they were told.

After that person dies, then you can pass a copy of the tape/CD to their 
children (unless there is a reason to hold it longer).