I have been researching family history since the early 1990's My initial focus was on my husband, Bruce's, family history; perhaps prompted by information and family stories from my mother-in-law. Later, in the latter half of the 1990's, after obtaining my adoption records and re-uniting with my maternal family, I began to research my own family; biological and adoptive.
Often writing things down in narrative form helps to clarify what I know, how I know (sources), what I think I know but need to find better sources for, and what I don't know and may be able to find out with more digging. It also provides an opportunity to consider ancestors and relatives in the context of their own time and place. In some ways, writing a narrative is part of my research process and, so, to some extent, I write for myself.
My key purpose in sharing what I write in this Blog is to be informative for the benefit of anyone who has an interest in the people being written about; whether close family who share all or part of Bruce and/or my family history or anyone who has an overlapping research interest, however small.
In my writing, I try to be accurate and, wherever possible, source what I write. However, if I make an error in fact or interpretation, I am happy to hear about it – family history research is an ongoing learning opportunity.