are approaching their later years and deaths with the same intense focus on themselves with which they live their lives. They’re planning their own funerals — celebrations of life — right down to the music, flowers, and what they want done with their remains. They want to be remembered — and celebrated — for who they really are.
2.5b The boomers’ parents
Many of the older generation first get prodded into doing their personal histories by their adult children. Boomers today want to know their parents’ and grandparents’ stories, and not only because they’re also their own stories. Boomers are the privileged generation, and they know it. They’re honoring their elders for their sacrifices in giving their children comfortable lives, university educations, lessons galore, and trips abroad. The younger generation wants to appreciate and understand what it’s like to fight a war, immigrate to a new country, or help to build a railroad. They want to get a sense of what desperation and hunger feel like — things many have never experienced.
Boomers want everything for their kids, too. Now that people are recording every waking minute of their children’s lives (including ultrasound images!), a huge piece of the puzzle would be missing if they didn’t also give them their roots and family history. Boomers are the Sandwich Generation, that is, they are between their parents, who are elderly and dying, and their children, who are quickly growing up. If those from the older generation aren’t documenting their lives for the family history book, it’s up to them. They are the storykeepers, the link between generations, feeling a yearning to preserve and pass down their parents’ experiences.
The problem is, most people are just way, way too busy. They lack the time and the knowledge to get it done.
Solution? Hire a professional.
Baby boomers are not shy about asking and paying for help when they need it. They are the generation that hires personal trainers, personal chefs, and personal shoppers. Why not a personal historian to make sure those family stories aren’t lost forever?
Boomers are the largest, wealthiest demographic in history. Many have made a lot of money in the dot-com and real estate markets, and are inheriting vast pockets of wealth. They’re used to paying a premium for top-quality items, especially unique items. David Foot, an economist at the University of Toronto and the author of Boom, Bust & Echo, predicts this huge demographic wave will be looking for products and services that are person-to-person rather than electronic or online. They will buy products that project history and quality of life. And they will see value in products that boost memory and brain power. A “biographer for hire” who can help them document and preserve their life stories will cater to all those demands.
2.5c Benefits for the storyteller
Many older people don’t have a family member asking them to do their personal histories; they take the initiative themselves. They hire personal historians because they are motivated to tell their stories, put things in perspective, and leave something tangible and permanent that will be around long after they’re gone.
Probably very few are aware that studies and surveys are proving that life review and reminiscence is great for health and well-being. Telling your life story, found the late Robert Butler, a Pulitzer-prize winning author renowned for his studies of healthy aging, has definite benefits, such as these stated in Transformational Reminiscence: Life Story Work by John Kunz and Florence Gray Soltys (Springer Publishing, 2007): “ … finding meaning in life, improving problem-solving skills, assisting with the grief process, increasing emotional support, strengthening self-esteem, decreasing depression and anxiety … ” Personal historians witness these changes firsthand as clients report a sense of completion and newfound peace and contentment. The process of telling your life story is usually extremely satisfying for the narrator.
3. Genealogy and Personal History
Genealogy is not quite the same as personal history, at least the way I refer to personal history in this book. Genealogists research details and facts about deceased relatives to trace the family ancestry, while personal historians tell the stories of those who are still alive to tell the tale! You might say that genealogists answer the where, who, and when questions, while personal historians have the luxury of asking a living, breathing person the why, how, and what questions. Genealogists and personal historians have traditionally lived in separate camps, but both are beginning to realize they have a lot in common and are borrowing tips and techniques from each other. The result is family history projects with more depth, detail, and appeal.
3.1 How a personal historian can work with a genealogist
Genealogists, both professional and hobbyists, are uncovering vast amounts of historical data, largely thanks to the Internet and more sophisticated searching techniques. But all too often, once they’ve uncovered the names, dates, charts, and documents, that’s where it ends. The piles of paper are not all that accessible for sharing. They’re not even that interesting, especially to the younger generation. Enter the captivating power of story. A personal historian can write a narrative that brings life to that material, illustrating it with images of maps, newspaper clippings, etc., that tells the story behind those dear departed relatives and the places and times they lived.
By the same token, personal historians can enhance their projects using the tools in a genealogist’s toolbox. Besides adding important background information, research can trigger more memories, verify guesses about where ancestors settled, flesh out details about an ocean voyage, and uncover other details that add depth and context to a person’s memoir. These can include:
• maps — both historic and current — about places the narrator mentions, or that illustrate a person’s or family’s migration over the years
• wills, birth and death certificates, military papers, census pages, passenger records
• family trees that clarify relationships
Linda Coffin, a Minneapolis, Minnesota, personal historian with extensive training and experience in genealogy, shares this example of how she used genealogy tools to enhance a personal history project:
“An elderly client wanted to know more about her mother’s Polish Catholic family. Since her Polish grandfather cut off her mother for marrying an English Protestant, she doesn’t have any leads. We started with the census, which shows the structure of her mother’s family, listing the grandfather and grandmother as a young couple with three children. A World War I draft registration database gives her a physical description of her grandfather, his address in 1917, and the name of a brother who was listed as a family contact. City directories provide address listings for both the grandfather and his brother. Since the draft card also lists the grandfather’s employer, business records can provide more information on his occupation. A search of the Catholic parish records for that part of the city opens a gold mine of information on baptisms, marriages, and burials. Land records show that the grandfather eventually moved to another state and died there. Ultimately, the client has a reunion with her second cousins — the grandchildren of the brother named on the draft registration card.”
Personal historians can do some genealogical research themselves, starting with websites such as Ancestry.com/.ca, NARA.com (National Archives), and Rootsweb.com, as well as regional and local historical societies. However, hiring a professional genealogist, which can be found through the Association of Professional Genealogists at www.apgen.org, might save time and guarantee a more productive search. They are trained and experienced in using many types of repositories (archives or places of storage and preservation), and they know how to look for specific information in the right places. Many have special areas of expertise: documents such as court records, vital records or passenger records. Others specialize by locality, such as German research, or research in Pennsylvania. Others are experts in certain repositories such as the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, or the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
If genealogy is your passion and you want to learn more, the National Genealogical Society