A genealogist group that meets at Zelienople Public Library takes time to focus on the stories that have been passed down from one generation to the next and ensure they’re saved for the future.

For example, anyone who is looking to take a deep dive into their family’s past should start with any old photos and documents they can find. These might be old journals, letters, military discharge papers, birth certificates and the like.

Sue Ennis, a retired teacher who leads the group in Zelienople, encourages newbie genealogists to take old documents and photos and begin asking questions of their oldest family members to gather stories about relatives they may have never known. One story may lead someone to track down information they wouldn’t have thought of and uncover legendary family connections and more stories.

“The best advice I was given was start with what you know,” Ennis said. “We all know more than what we remember, if you sit around with family and start chit-chatting.”

Getting names, dates, photos and locations can be enough to ignite a passion for more information. Ennis leads participants through documents they share with the group and explains how to dig for more details.

It’s the access to these memories, these details and facts, that make genealogy possible. Preserving that access is what ensures future generations can learn from the past.

Butler County Historical Society, the Saxonburg Museum and the Zelienople Historical Society all have plans to digitalize their collections of photos, manuscripts, letters and other artifacts. They look to preserve the stories, the facts and the history for years to come and it’s a good practice for personal photos and documents, too.

Genealogists know that even as wide-ranging and diverse as each person’s search for family history is, there is often one thing that ties them together — old documents and letters are often written in cursive. Many of today’s students don’t know how to write in cursive and, as a result, they often can’t read it. To be honest, the best cursive writer can sometimes have difficultly reading ancient scripts.

Gov. Josh Shapiro signed a bill into law Feb. 11 mandating cursive handwriting be taught in Pennsylvania schools. The bill will take effect April 12, meaning it’ll be back in classrooms for the upcoming school year.

Butler Area School District considered implementing a cursive writing component as part a new curriculum program more than a year ago, said Laura Miller, director of curriculum. She said there is a generation who can’t read or write in cursive and that, for the most part, the district sees bringing it back will benefit students.

Ennis said learning how to search government databases for documents like land and property transfers, marriage licenses, military papers and births can give a person a lot of information on where their ancestors lived and whom they knew and were related to. Being able to read such documents is essential to gaining that knowledge.

We can learn a lot from history books and documentaries, but we learn the most about ourselves when we learn the story of how we came to be here.

— KL