Whether positive, negative, or a little of both, every person walking this earth has a unique and interesting perspective on life. Nobody experiences life the same way. When you think of it, each person is a member of an era, and as a member, lives their history within history. They, and we, are living history books. So, as one generation evaporates into memory, will there be enough evidence of how they lived for the next? Will there be a way for future family members to discover what their ancestors experienced during the point of history in which they existed? Would they ever discover what kind of connection they shared other than genetics? There is a way, and it’s more than what is left in the will (pardon the pun).

Searching for information to build a family tree has been growing in popularity for decades, and because of that, the internet is teaming with free and subscription data banks offering genealogical information. From familysearch.org to ancestry.com, anyone with some extra time, interest, and maybe cash, can build a nice file of names, dates, and documents. This data is what would be the structure – or bones – of your family history and that of those individuals who represent the building blocks. Here is where the difference lies between genealogical data and records found on the net or tucked away in Grandma’s closet: Where names, dates, and documents provide the framework, a persona history or memoir provides the depth. They are the personality of a page. For not only do you see that Grandma lived on E. 120th Street in 1920, you will also read what it was like for her to live on that street, how her house was furnished, and the events that occurred while she lived there.

Genealogy offers structure; personal histories offer substance. The two work hand in hand.

From How to Record a Personal History and Save a Family Legacy