Once you’ve exhausted your family's store of knowledge - if not patience - it's time to look for other artefacts, such as personal letters, photographs, heirlooms, official documents, school reports and even old uniforms; old boxes stored in attics or basements may contain what their owners consider to be rubbish, but in the hands of a family historian the contents can reveal great detail about the past, and add colour to the lives and loves of our forebears.
Once you’ve exhausted your family's store of knowledge - if not patience - it's time to look for other artefacts, such as personal letters, photographs, heirlooms, official documents, school reports and even old uniforms; old boxes stored in attics or basements may contain what their owners consider to be rubbish, but in the hands of a family historian the contents can reveal great detail about the past, and add colour to the lives and loves of our forebears. As always, look for dates, names and places, but you can also start to build up a picture about who they really were.