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| Old Remington Wide Carraige |
When I started genealogy there were no computer, no word processors, and no Internet. We used a pencil and paper. We could buy Family Group Sheets and Pedigree charts and we filled them in by hand. If you had the money you might be able to purchase a typewriter but if you made a mistake it was either do it over or white it out. The only genealogy magazine that I knew about was "the Genealogical Helper" published by Everton Publishers, and I poured over every issue again and again. I started to gather information by writing letters to everyone I could get an address for, then I waited and watched the mail for a letter that would bring any little bit of information on the family. Sometimes it was one piece of information per letter (one date or place), then I would send another letter. How far we have come from the "good old days".
I can really relate to this. I started researching my family history in 1974, and I used an old typewriter for a long time. I occasionally still use Family Group Sheets and Pedigree Charts that I fill in by hand. Some that I bought years ago are in a format that (for some situations) is more convenient than the ones I can print from my genealogy software (The Master Genealogist).
ReplyDeleteI've discovered some of these letters that people who have been gone for many years wrote to someone who was looking for information. What a gift!
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