Nancy
From alot in my family history I have found family
members kept record in
a big bible and then would add to as the children ,brother and sisters
names ,children so on.
Also there was family large reunions and families living close to gether
and working together.
There was Records of census who lived in house hold and many family
members lived together or share family living.
This I have found alot back in the 1800 and 1900's Also family plots in
cemetery will tell alot on the tomb stones who are related to.
MGarrett wrote
Thanks to all of you who took the time to write regarding my new
granddaughters! I particularly enjoyed the comments about "100
years
from now" and it really got me thinking. Do you suppose in 100 years
you will be able to just enter - say - your own social security number
in a computer and it will spit out your family history back to Adam and
Eve??? (Or, at least, back to Noah unless your family were VERY good
swimmers.)
Then I got to thinking - how DID people do family history a 100
years
ago? I can't even fathom keeping a database any where but on a
computer, and yet personal computers (for home use I mean) have only
been around what - 20 years? I used my first one in 1984 and that was a
top of the line IBM-XT with those 2 floppy drives so you stored
everything on disks.
There was no microfilm in1902 - I had to look it up, but the first
commercial use for microfilm was in 1925 and that was for microfilming
checks at a bank. I have no idea when the government first starting
microfilming the census reports, but it can't have been much before
that. And, of course, you have the 72 year privacy "rule" so in 1902 you
wouldn't have any of the good census reports anyway (for me, 1850 was a
gravy year in census!).
So how did they do it? I've heard that some people kept card files
with
each individual on a separate card with all their vital information and
then sorted by families. Just imagine if you dropped the box! And what
did you start with? Well, probably where most of us started - with a
page from the family Bible, I suppose.
We are really so lucky with computers and, especially, the Internet.
I
cannot fathom how I would have done any of the searching I've done
without the Internet.
Any thoughts on how family history was done in 1902??? I'd love to
hear
your thoughts. (And if you were around in 1902, it is much past your
bedtime!)
Nancy
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