WRITING A FAMILY HISTORY BOOK

Across the Fence 



By Arvord Abernethy 

Doesn’t this make about three years that you have let le drop by and have a little chat with you “Across the Fence”? You have been so nice and encouraging. It has made my efforts feel worth while. 

For some ten years, I’ve been working with different kinsmen on the family histories of some ancestors. Not all has been put in book form and can easily be scattered or lost. I am planning to get some of it into book form. 

I am humbly proud of the fine heritage that has been passed on to me. If my efforts in getting much of this in book form can be an encouragement to coming generations, it will be worth all that I have done to get it recorded. If I get too involved in this project, I might have to skip dropping by to see you every now and then. I’ll come by all I can. 

I’ve already had some discouragement. Last week’s paper was saying that manually operated typewriters are out of style and are now antiques. 

That is all I have to type on, so my style is already cramped. The paper said that I should be using a computerized word processor. I’m a little too old to try to learn all about computers. If one of those things that have “chips” in them about the size of a postage stamp that can remember 64,000 things, I don’t want to work with a machine that is smarter than I am. They advertise that those machines are smart enough to correct the errors and misspelled words. I couldn’t use one of them; it would be running backwards all the time. 

Another big problem I would have in writing a family history book is dressing up the skeletons in the family closet so it will be presentable. If I only had the vocabulary and the ability that the late Miss Clara Lint??? (bless her memory) had to describe people, I could handle that part. Miss Clara was the social news editor for the Hamilton Herald-News for many years and did a wonderful job. I use to wish that she would live on and on until after I passed away, and then I could come back from the dead and read what a “fine” fellow I was from her obituary column. 

Don’t be expecting a ... ... from “Roots”; you will probably be surprised to even see a ... ... on it.

Shared by Roy Ables

ACROSS THE FENCE