Family History Library: A Collection of Stories and Treasures

Compared to family trees, family histories are more detailed accounts of your ancestors' lives. These are not just kept on scrolls but are documented in books to serve as treasures that can be passed on to the next generation. If a family's history is well-documented, preserved and organized, this could create a library of family history.

A family history library is a collection of more than names and dates. It is a collection of stories of people who once lived and contributed to the society. In this library, you will encounter numerous interesting facts about people you never knew. These are tales about parents, children, grandparents and great-great grandparents who likely spent each passing day quite differently from the way we spend ours.

Most of the stories in a family history library were passed by oral tradition. It was perhaps only later that some diligent family member decided to write it down and preserve the tales in book form. Such books are called biographies.

Family history libraries may also contain autobiographies. Autobiographies, in contrast to biographies, are books or documents about a person's life written by the person him- or herself.

When autobiographies and biographies of the same family are brought together, these form a library. However, since not all people are diligent or have the patience for writing, family libraries are usually small.

Royalties, however, have bigger libraries of family histories compared to other people. Since their lives are mostly publicized, a lot of writers have earned a living publishing stories about them. Also, royalties usually have a private biographer to document their daily living.

Through a family history library, people can trace important gene-related matters like sicknesses and abnormalities. It can also answer questions as to why people act or behave in a certain way; these behavior patterns might have existed in one or more of their ancestors. You can also view how these people are linked with others who have the same surname.

Family history libraries also provide information on skeletons in one's closet. Most families may have weird, yet fascinating backgrounds from which you can learn a lot.