Obituaries just ain't what they used to be.

I was a guest at the monthly meeting of the Blair County Genealogical Society last Thursday when the discussion turned to obituaries. Many newspapers now run a very abbreviated version; if you want a longer, more detailed version you have to pay for it.

Obituaries are the bread and butter of family history. The Society has an extensive collection (and a great library!), some going back two centuries. Traditionally, an obituary includes information about a person's relatives, often including three generations: ancestors (son of, daughter of); contemporaries (spouse(s), brothers and sisters); and descendants (children, sometimes even a count of grandchildren and great grandchildren). In addition to family history, an obituary may also include information about occupations and careers, education, hobbies and other interests.

But for all their information, obituaries can also muddy the trail of an ancestor. Think about it . . . the person who could best write it has just died, so somebody else writes it about them. It may be somebody who isn't sure of all the details, so they get left out completely, or errors creep in.

Bob Hewitt of the Blair County Genealogical Society had this suggestion: write your own. Just don't fill in that final date yet, and make sure to update it every once and a while! What a great idea.

It seems to me that here at StoryTrax we have the perfect solution for telling your own story. It's easy to do, and you can divide it up into sections that you can link together. Your story will automatically be archived, so it will be easy to find, and saved. Even though it's "online," you can limit who can access it by checking the box "Only allow users in my friends and family to view this story" that is located four lines below the text box where you write and edit your post. If you check that box, the rest of the world can't see your story, so your information is protected. But, your family and friends can see your story, and comment on it, or add notes. And don't forget to add the photos -- your life story, illustrated!

Start writing!