google-site-verification: google65e716d80989ba07.html Summer Through the Eyes of Your Ancestor | The Armchair Genealogist

Summer Through the Eyes of Your Ancestor


The simplest photograph can shed such life on a story.  We can often be swept up in the great events of our
ancestor’s lives, the births, marriages and deaths. We analyse their surroundings, their jobs, their homes to add definition to the lives they lived. However, we can frequently over look the small things, the little pleasures in life that can really bring a life into focus.

Many of us are out enjoying the summer months, we are traveling, enjoying outdoor activities, swimming, hiking, outdoor picnics and with that comes gardening, summer foods and a harvest. Small pleasures in life that we certainly enjoy and take for granted and your ancestors mostly likely did as well.

When you’re writing your family history stories, slow down to consider the small pleasures in life that you enjoy and then relate them to your ancestors. You’ll bring a great deal of context to your stories, making them more relatable to your readers.

Seek out a picture in your collection, one that shows your ancestors enjoying the summer. Pull up a lawn chair, grab yourself a cold drink and write a small narrative about what you see. Think about the who, why, when and where of the picture. Use all five of your senses to capture the setting, the moment in time in words on the page. 

Today we start our third and final week in the Out of Our Armchair Summer Adventure. This week share on our Facebook page a picture of your ancestors having some summer fun.  Share a few words about the picture.  When the week is over, we will choose our third and final winner of our contest.  Each winner receives a 1-year subscription to FindMyPast.com. 


You can check out our past winners for Week 1- Sharing an Archive Moment and Week 2- Road Trip. You can begin sharing on Monday Aug 5th at 8am and you have until Sunday Aug 11 at 12 pm EST to enter in our third and final week. Look forward to seeing your ancestors in the throes of summer fun. 

Our winner for Week 2 will be announced on our Facebook page after they have been contacted.