If you have followed any of the articles that I’ve written for the Soul Pitt Quarterly, then you’ll know that I LOVE HISTORY. It was my minor is college and has always been #3 on the list of things that I have enjoyed since I was a kid. I owe much of this adoration to my family because the first history I learned, was my own.
What lead me to write a post about this was that, I had a lovely visit this evening with a cousin on my paternal grandmother’s side. For years, I had researched my family but what she shared with me tonight made me reexamine myself and how I go about in this world. It also made me realize that the debt of gratitude that I owe to my ancestors, and especially my grandparents and great-great grandparents can never repaid by anything other than being an upright citizen in the world.
My interest in history has been fed since childhood when my maternal grandmother would tell me stories about her great- grandmother, and my father would tell me about his diverse family tree (which all of us fondly nicknamed The United Nations). I enjoyed hearing stories about dad’s visits to the family farm down in Virginia, his cousins and uncles who were jazz musicians, and my grandmother’s upbringing on Pittsburgh’s historic Northside. What I loved the most about the stories, was that I got to connect the dots back to myself and how it shaped me as a person and my view of the world.
In 2017, I plan to release a book that details some of this rich history. My readers will follow my family through time from the Antebellum South, through the Great Migration and Civil Rights Movement, and finally to the 21st century where we continue to thrive. It is my hope that my story will inspire others to research and share their own family stories as well.
If you are considering writing your own family history, here are some great places to start your research:
1)www.ancestry.com-
2) www.familysearch.org
3)www.newspapers.com
4)www.fold3.com
5)www. archives.gov- The National Archives website
Do you have a story to tell? I’d love to hear about it! Feel free to leave me a comment or email me at renaissancewritingllc@gmail.com
Turn your history into a work of art!
