Include Written Correspondence In A Family History
While on the trail for photographs and other records to record your family's history, you came across a few journals and boxes and boxes of letters from your grandfather to your grandmother during World War II.
Should you include some of these items in a compilation of a family history?
Absolutely!
While the love letters home will not necessarily add to the "factual" information in your family history such as birth and marriage records, they will add a level to your historical presentation that will make it more real to those who view it. Families are about more than dates, so don't be afraid to include these more personalized touches.
In fact, those letters and journals are absolute treasures for your family. Not only do they give your generation and the ones to come a good idea of what courting may have been like in the 1940s, they also will give you a glimpse into the past and its customs, behaviors and so on.
Plus, and here's the real treasure, the words of your ancestor, lovingly written on a page will help bring that person to "life" for you. Through their words you will learn of their hopes, dreams, fears and even a little about where they were and what they were doing during the war.
While it's not likely you will be able to include an entire box of letters in a single family history book, a few can be preserved in this form.
For the rest of the documents you've uncovered, it's still a good idea to treat them like gold. Store them in a manner recommended by archivists or even scan them into a computer for digital storage so future family members can enjoy the words without fear of deterioration.
Correspondence of the past is not like it is today. Through letters our ancestors often revealed much about themselves and took great pains to express their feelings, hopes and dreams.
A find that includes letters and journals is to a family historian what a chest of gold is to an undersea treasure hunter. Protect it. Preserve it. And do include some of it in your "official" family history.
