Writing Tip: Remember the Genealogists of 2209
January 22nd, 2009I like genealogists. One reason is that they seem to really like my book Making History. I often give talks to genealogical societies about fleshing out those dates and places they love to dig up, with the stories that go with them.
Genealogists are good at looking back. But I tell them they also need to think forward. Remember the genealogists of the future. In two hundred years, someone might come looking for you. What do you want them to find? Just your name and the dates you were born and died, maybe the city you lived in? Isn’t there more to you than that?
Remember that your life too, is part of the historical record. For instance, let’s suppose your great-great-great-grandfather was born in Harlem in 1828 and died in Brooklyn in 1888. That’s what the genealogists could tell you. But what was your g-g-g-grandfather doing for those sixty years he was on the earth? In 1860 he was 32 years old and probably voted in the presidential election of 1860. Who did he vote for? Was he a supporter of Abe Lincoln, or was he angry that William Seward of New York didn’t get the Republican nomination? Or did he just not care? Wouldn’t it be great if he had written some of his thoughts down?
If he didn’t, it’s too late now. But it’s not too late for you.
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