Many people want to know about their histories and the roots of their ancestors. But, unfortunately, the culture of writing family biographies, or even their memoirs are not cherished, especially in this part of the world.
We are passionate about listening to stories, rather than reading or writing them. And that is equally the same way we record our histories, storing them on people’s heads from generation to generation.
This culture is not yielding much riches to us, many of us cannot trace back our family history beyond three generations. The moment people with archives of your history are gone, you cannot be certain about stories or histories you hear.
In this global age, with so many electronic gadgets and resources at our fingertips, it’s important to start exploring and developing your family tree. This will help you to come up with a good family story.
We underrated the riches to be discovered in many of our families if we dig down well. We have unique families that have so many legacies and deserve to be celebrated.
You can be the one to start digging out this treasure of your family. But how can you do that?
There are ways and techniques to do it.
1. Begin with yourself. You know yourself well and some important dates in your life. Note down these landmark dates and other details of close family members. The tree of your family will start growing from this stage.
2. Talk to relatives. Relatives are invaluable resources in every family. Talk to elderly family members who have abundant information about your great-great-grandparents. While doing that, there is a need to record your interviews, and don’t forget to ask them for pictures.
3. Choose the character or episode you want to focus on. Probably you belong to the royal family, warriors, or great scholars and you want to bring out this story from the lineage of your parents.
4. Pull together all the records you obtained. Websites can also give you some relevant information.
5. Start writing. By writing down your findings, you are giving life to your amazing stories out of graves. You can learn the best style of writing by reading other writers’ works.
Everything you need to know about your family history starts with your effort.
* Zaharaddeen I. Kallah is a writer based in Kano
