By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
As October draws to an end, so does family history month.
But Susan Schlichting, Cottonwood Extension District agent, said as the holidays approach, now is a perfect time to consider learning and recording those histories as families gather together.
"Now is the time to kind of be thinking about how you lay that groundwork for getting together and making purposeful conversations around family history as you gather with grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins and to learn more about that history of your family," she said.
And with cellphones, she said documenting those histories is easier than ever.
"Hopefully people take time to write down the stories or record the stories," Schlichting said. "We all carry phones with us. They all have recording devices in them. You could record those stories and share them on digitally if writing it down is not your thing."
And while it may not seem a pressing issue, she said as time passes, treasured family memories and stories can be lost forever if care is not taken to document them.
"Get it documented, because those stories get lost over time if you don't," Schlichting said. "It happens so often in families and, and no one seems to have the interest in taking it on and running with it after they're gone. And so it does just go away."
While she said studying family history can help bring families closer together, evidence shows tangible benefits for youth.
"There's a group out of Emory University that's been doing a bunch of research about family stories and how important they are to teen development and helping kids to learn," she said. "Not only just the good stories about your family, but the challenges your family faced in the past, or maybe how they went through some up and down times and how they came through those in a good way.
"It helps the teens to become more resilient themselves because they've heard the stories of their great grandparents and the struggles they had along the way. ... If you can help instill those kinds of things in kids, they can learn that they have that strength in them as well."
Schlichting said from her past, she has seen first-hand how powerful learning family histories can be.
"I think about that as I grew up, just down the road from the family farm where we started in this country and always heard those stories about how great-great-grandma came over here with two small children by herself because she had no place to be over in the old country," she said. "Her husband had died and they were living in a house owned by a collective farm. And so he passed away and she and the kids were out on the out on the road.
"So they had to find someplace to be and they came to this country and started and formed a farm and went forward from there and in a good way, you know, so our family still has that farm in the family to this day. And (with) those kinds of stories, if you can help instill those kinds of things in kids, they can learn that they have that strength in them as well."
Along with various internet resources to document family histories available, Schlichting said 4-H could also be an asset.
"There are several 4-H project books that are out there that help kids to learn that process of telling the stories, documenting the stories and researching their family history," she said. "And they can get those through your local extension office."