VOICES FROM THE PAST
When I was in my late teens’ I purchased a reel to reel tape recorder. It was
mainly for recording various Youth Club events. But one day I had it on at home
and while it was on it recorded my mother talking. She heard it and told me to
get rid of it, so I deleted it. There have been many times since then that I
wish that I had kept it.
I do now have a recording of both of my wife’s parents voice – just a few words
and I wish there were more. These were originally on cassette tape, now they are
on mp3’s. So my advice to everyone, for goodness sake record your elderly
relatives voices while they are here.
But how can we hear the voice of earlier generations. For those who could write there is
the way they wrote.
If you are very lucky your ancestor may have left a diary. But these are few and
far between.
I remember that when the 1911 census first came out and you had to pay per item,
one of the selling points was that you could see your ancestor’s writing.
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But you couldn't always be sure that what you were seeing was written by
the right person. |
So where do we look? I find the easiest place to find their writing is in a copy
of the church records of their marriage. As a retired minister who officiated at
many weddings, I remember that I was always conscious that the marriage
registers were legal documents and they had to be right. So, the people who
signed were the actual couple. So, it was not only their writing but also their
own signature (or “x” if they couldn’t write) The certificates were a different
matter, names on those could, in fact, all be written by the same person.
Our ancestor's writing is surely a voice from the past, coming from a time
of celebration.
And if you think about it, though now we take photos and videos, it’s the times
of celebration when we create memories of the present for the people of the future.
