Teasing Out the Hidden Story Behind the Genealogical Facts

 Teasing Out the Hidden Story Behind the Genealogical Facts 

Speaker:     Pam Vestal

If we are lucky, good genealogical research provides us with lots of information about our ancestors, but most of it consists of dry, lifeless data that doesn't give us much of a sense of who our ancestors were or what their lives were like.  One of the biggest challenges we face when writing family histories is how to turn those bare facts into tales worthy of being read, since our ancestors were real people, not just names, dates, and places, and their stories are worth fleshing out.  

 Often, unexpected clues are concealed or unexplored in the information we’ve already gathered, so in this class, we’ll explore four different approaches that can help us to understand our ancestors within the context of the time and place in which they lived.  

 Topics include finding their stories by: 

·      Setting the scene

·      Understanding the chronology of events

·      Considering the thinking of the past

·      Exploring the details in our genealogical records more completely.

 By digging deeply into the genealogical facts, we can bring our ancestors' stories to life. 

Pam Vestal is a professional genealogist and speaker who turned her focus toher longtime love of genealogy after a 20-year writing career. Her articles have appeared in the National Genealogical Society Magazine and The Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly, and her lectures take her from coast to coast.  Pam specializes in conducting genealogical research and then transforming that information into illustrated stories that even non-genealogists can enjoy.

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