Information Please Help

Help – Information Please

I’m often asked, “What information do you need?” or I’m told “If you need more information, please let me know.”  And I say “If you have some information that you think would be helpful, please send it”.

My desire is to provide to each grandchild or great grandchild a word picture of the lives of their grandparent(s), aunts, uncles and other family members. This picture could be in the form of a biography or some other family history story. And a few photos are always helpful.

So where does this family history information come from? Well! It might start with a birth announcement or news of a marriage or maybe an obituary. But that is just the beginning. Remember the goal is to collect enough information for a picture of the family member. The history of grandpa and grandma is much more interesting when we can read about the events that happened between the BMD (Birth Marriage Death). And that’s where you come in. It is up to you to add color to these pictures, to add hi-lights and details to their lives.

These highlights might be available on social media, send me an invite (im2ed@www.edquade.com) or a link. These highlights may already be available in a biography. Some details may be found in a resume. Maybe there is a newspaper clipping about participation in some special event or even an award that was received. Or maybe you are the only one that can provide information about the events.

So you can help by providing details of as many of the following items as possible and applicable:

• Birth information, when, where, special circumstances, length, weight…
• Names, First name, Middle name, more middle names, Last name…
• Given name, Surname, Maiden name, Nick names, Alternate Names….
• Names of both parents, Maiden name of mother.
• AKA (Also Known As) names, what, when….
• Adoptions, Step children, Foster children, all that were part of the families.
• Birth parents of adopted, step, foster children.
• Special childhood events,
• Places called home, when where, what happened here or there.
• Religion, what, when where…
• Grammar school, what, when, where…
• High school, what when, where…
• Post secondary education, schools, majors, certificates, degrees, honors, when, where…
• Places of residence.
• Occupations, who did you work for, where, what did you do, when did you begin…
• Military information, years of service, honors, ribbons, places served, when, where…
• Community participation and other activities of interest, when where…
• Honors and other recognitions, when and where….
• Vacations that were special…
• Photos of individuals and of families.  Digital are the best for me.
• Marriages, Divorces, Who, when, where, what
• Parents of spouses so spouses have parents – Surname and Given name and other names.
• Deaths, Funerals, Memorials, obituaries, burials, interment, cremation, when, where, ….
• And please include other things that you may feel are important.
• Newspaper clippings of events.
• A more complete list of Fact Types is provided for reference at the end of this page.

Please don’t forget to include the places as most things happen someplace.  The date of an event is always important so please include that.  Many events such as occupations or employments have both a beginning and an ending date so in such cases please include both dates.

In general I am not out to prove, as a genealogist might, the lineage of any individual so I do not pursue official documents of birth or any other events.  If and when such documents are provided or are available I will do my best to properly reference such documents for any extracted relevant facts and events in the lives of family members.  I do try to document all of the sources of the information that I collect and enter into the family history.  So in addition to the details of events that you might provide, it is always very helpful to have the source of those detail.  So for example newspaper clipping would include the name of the newspaper and the date and city that it was printed.  If I don’t have that information on a newspaper clipping I record the source as UKNP (Unknown Newspaper).  Information provided without documented sources are(I try) credited to the individual providing the source as “Personal Knowledge”.

Please use the following form for feedback to include updates to your family information. This will not become a comment on this post but is an email to me with your updates. Thanks for your help.

Following is a more complete list of Fact Types defined in the software:

1. Adoption
2. Alternate name
3. Ancestral File Number
4. Annulment
5. Baptism
6. Bar Mitzvah
7. Bas Mitzvah
8. Birth
9. Blessing
10. Burial
11. Caste
12. Census
13. Census (family)
14. Christen
15. Christen (adult)
16. Confirmation
17. Cremation
18. Death
19. Degree
20. Description
21. Divorce
22. Divorce filed
23. DNA test
24. Education
25. Election
26. Emigration
27. Engagement
28. Excommunication
29. First communion
30. Graduation
31. Illness
32. Immigration
33. LDS Baptism
34. LDS Confirmation
35. LDS Endowment
36. LDS Initiatory
37. LDS Seal to parents
38. LDS Seal to spouse
39. Living
40. Marriage
41. Marriage Bann
42. Marriage Contract
43. Marriage License
44. Marriage Settlement
45. Marriage-AB
46. Military
47. Miscellaneous
48. Mission
49. Namesake
50. Nationality
51. Naturalization
52. Occupation
53. Ordination
54. Probate
55. Prperty
56. Reference No
57. Religion
58. Residence
59. Residence (family)
60. Retirement
61. Separation
62. Soc Sec No.
63. Stillborn
64. Title (Nobility)
65. Will