10 of 21

Write now Article Tools

When I was in high school and "required" to study American History, I hated the subject. It wasn't until one of my uncles and a great-uncle introduced me to Genealogy that I actually began to develop an interest in history.
As a Genealogist of more than a quarter of a century, I have begun writing a family history that could neither be complete nor compelling without an understanding of American and Old World history, without an understanding about certain times or eras, without an understanding of certain job descriptions, or without understanding the terms of the era.

In doing the research for a family's ancestry, it is always best to begin with one's self and work back through time. I, for instance, have worked back to Colonial America with two of my family lines, and back to 13th century Europe with yet another. This is where both history and historical research became much more important and interesting to me. My research had taken me back into times and circumstances where no one living today knew any of the people or remembered the times.
In the process of beginning my document (I won't say book yet because the document is neither long enough nor complete enough to be considered such) about my family's history, I found there were many terms used in earlier eras that might have completely different meanings today or are not used at all today. Either that or I would find a word in a will, letter, land deed or another source that I simply did not understand, or assumed to be something completely different than it actually was. For instance, in the will of one of my 4th great grandfathers, he stated, "Item I give and bequeath to my beloved Granson Dixon Spivy My long Shot gun my crosscutut Saw & all my Coopers tools." I made an assumption, thinking coopers tools referred to one who works with copper and perhaps other metals.
Instead by later doing in-depth research on this subject, I learned that a cooper was a woodcarver, who specialized in the construction and repair of barrels, tubs, casks, buckets and other containers made from wood. The barrel-making occupation - known as coopering - was a thriving industry during the American Colonial Era; and the cooper's place of business was called a cooperage. The art of coopering, or barrel-making, is one of great antiquity, probably developed from basket-making dating back to the 13th or 14th century, perhaps even earlier. Coopers tools were all hand tools, but specialized for each particular job, cutting, shaping,

• 1
• 2
• 3
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about How to write a compelling family history?
We want to hear your view. Write now!