Truth
Matters
Personal Profiles
Beyond Names
In this section we try to make good on our claim that "Family history is so much more than a collection of names." A personal profile is in some sense the culmination of family history research, and in the ideal world, everyone in our tree would have a profile page. As it is, we've included profiles of selected ancestors, and hope to add to these in the future.
Bringing our ancestors to life
How can you learn something meaningful about a person you, and perhaps your parents and grandparents, never met, and about whom very little was written? Ask yourself, "What can I really know about this person?
One strategy is to connect your ancestor to something you do know about. For instance, if you know the place she lived and the time period, you can study the history of that region and imagine how that could have affected her everyday life.
Though historically more applicable to men than women, perhaps the single most informative clue to an ancestor's life is his occupation. To the extent a person chooses his occupation, that choice reflects his personality and natural skills. But even if your ancestor worked at something that wasn't, in modern terms, "a good fit," you've at least learned something about how he spent his time, and maybe something about his place in his community. This is why, in our trees and profiles, we endeavor to include occupations whenever possible.
For both men and women, a person's family situation is also revealing. Did she have two children or ten? Were they boys or girls? How many offspring died in childhood? Each of the following profiles includes a family group sheet as both a genealogic and cultural tool.
In a day when family trees are sometimes copied electronically without regard to accuracy, we've tried to support accuracy by providing sources for the profiles, especially when those sources are difficult to access. We hope you'll find this helpful.