Writing It Down
Posted by Fran Kent on April 19, 2009, 7:50 pm
It is profoundly unsettling to see so many messages here from men and women trying to learn something of their father's or grandfather's service with the Armed Guard (in at least one instance a man is trying to identify his father). Every man who has had children, male or female, should set down somewhere at least a brief record of what he has done, even if includes nothing beyond the names of his parents, the date and place of his birth, his schooling and, if appropriate, something about his time in the service. Anyone who has made an effort to trace his family history back more than a generation or two can understand how difficult and disappointing this can be in the absence of written records. So I urge everyone here to record these few facts. It makes no difference at all if the result isn't something that publishers will take up and turn into a best seller. It doesn't matter if words are misspelled and punctuation misplaced. A later generation will be grateful.
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