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Normally in this space I offer advice and encouragement to people trying to peer through the mists of the past and find their ancestors.
Today, though, I’m urging genealogists of today to make themselves more visible to their descendants, perhaps descendants who have not yet been born.
What I’m talking about is writing up for future generations an account of how you and your family have endured or suffered during the pandemic years. That means 2020, 2021 and very likely at least 2022.
“But I’m not a writer,” you say? You don’t have to be a pro. You’re not competing for a Pulitzer Prize in journalism. You’re essentially preparing a letter to your own descendants, letting them know how you made it through one of the most trying times in our nation’s (and the world’s) history.
Here are some suggestions about what to include.
Beginnings: What were your thoughts when you learned that a strange virus from China was turning up in the United States? Did you dismiss it and assume it would soon disappear, or were you unsettled by news stories of its early spreading? Were you drawn to newspaper, TV and Internet stories about it? At what point did you realize that this was something unprecedented?
Lifestyle changes: You were probably shocked to find that major changes in our daily lives began setting in. When familiar places like stores, churches, restaurants, business places and libraries abruptly closed, what were your first thoughts, and how did you adjust to changes in everyday routine?
Hard times: Many people suffered reduced income, and others lost income entirely because of closures and layoffs. How did you adjust if this happened to you? If you were a renter or a landlord or you operated a business, what course of action did you take?
Information: With so many competing sources of data and so many controversies (masks, vaccines, mandates and more), where did you find yourself looking when you wanted daily updates? For two years now, we have been overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of data, and by the wild differences on how to deal with the coronavirus. How did you sort it all out day to day?
Adjustments: Americans have found themselves in almost a new world of daily life. Masks remain part of our lives, though they are no longer ubiquitous. Much work is now done virtually, with participants and leaders in different places and meeting on a computer screen. Did this system take a lot of getting used to, and have you adjusted to it?
Family life: If you have children, what changes did you have to make because of closures and conversion to virtual classes?
Well, there is certainly more you could write about. Some new points will occur to you as you get into your “letter to your descendants.” By the way, make sure you preserve your document either in a file for papers or via computer and cyber-storage.
What wouldn’t you give for a document by an ancestor minutely describing emigrating to America, or living in “the old country”? Wouldn’t you thrill to an account by an ancestor of life during the Civil War, or maybe the 1918 flu pandemic?
Think of this project as writing a personal letter to your family historians of the future, and just do it.
News Notes: Historical exhibits and similar events are gradually reappearing, and that’s a good sign. Support your favorite organizations, particularly in this time when their standard sources of income are reduced or halted entirely.
Tom Mooney is a Times Leader genealogy columnist. Reach him at [email protected].