Photo: Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, Weston WV
Family history is the study of a family’s history and traditions over an extended period of time and may involve documenting stories as well as factual information. A family history documents and preserves important family stories and memories, the stories that bring a family tree to life.
Historians may use oral interviews, historical and other records, and genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members. The results are often displayed in charts or written as narratives. Family history puts flesh on the bones of genealogy.