Editor's Note: The following excerpt from Producing a Quality Family History, by Patricia Law Hatcher, reprinted with the author's permission, contains groups of questions that you may want to ask yourself as you document your family history. As you read them, the obvious question may arise in your mind: Where do I find the answers? In the upcoming weeks and months, the Daily News will periodically pick a group of questions to guide you to some resources that can help you answer these questions as they pertain to your ancestors' lives.

Why do you research? A sense of family, a sense of history, the thrill of solving a puzzle? Share that with your readers. Help them understand that these aren't names on paper, they are your family, they are real people. By learning about the context of our ancestors' lives, we can turn those scraps of paper in our files into people—and share that magic with others.

Is This Context Stuff Necessary?
Nope. But it makes your book more readable, more enjoyable, more valuable. The idea of putting our ancestors in context has grown in popularity recently. We are coming to understand that some research problems can be solved (or solved correctly) only if we place the individuals in context.

Getting Ideas
Close your eyes and try to think about your ancestors' lives. What do you need to know in order to bring the details into sharp focus? Picture your ancestor standing in his or her own kitchen. Now try to zoom in on the clothing, the utensils, the furnishings, on what the person is doing. Chances are that the best you can get is a fuzzy picture. Research the answers and write about them.

The Context of Everyday Life
What kind of clothing did each family member wear? How about shoes? Did the women and children go barefoot? Did they spin or weave? Did they buy clothing, shoes, cloth? If so, where?

What kind of food did they eat? What were their meals like? How was the food prepared? Did they cook on a fireplace or a stove? Was the kitchen part of the main room, a lean-to, a separate building? What did it smell like? Where did they get their food? Which items did they buy grow, raise, slaughter? What kind of animals did they own?

Who were their nearest neighbors? How far away did they live? Did they travel by road or water to visit? How many other young people lived within, say, a two-mile radius?

Was there a school? How far away? Did all the children go to school? At what age did their education end? What topics were taught? Who was the teacher? What books were used?

What diseases were prevalent? What names were used to describe them? How were they treated? By whom?

The Context of Housing
Was the house built of boards, stripped logs, sod? How did they seal out the weather? What was the roof made of? What was the foundation made of? How many rooms were there? How big were they? What was each room used for? Was there a porch, a lean-to? What about out-buildings? How was the chimney constructed? Did the farm animals stay in a building that was attached or detached? What material was the floor made of? Was it raised? How about the walls? Were they finished, wallpapered, newspapered? Were there any decorations? Were there any windows? How many? What shape and size? Did they have glass? Did they open? What was the finest possession in the house?

The Context of Work
Was your ancestor a farmer? What crops did he grow? How big were his fields? How large were the crop yields? What farm implements did he use? Did he plow with a horse, a mule, an ox—or was the plow man-powered? Was it good farm land or bad? Were the fields fenced? What types of farm animals did they raise? Did they have a cow for milk, chicken for eggs? Did they raise hogs? Was butchering a community affair? Were the animals fenced or free range? What was his brand or mark?

Did the head of the household have a secondary occupation or craft? Why do you think he was most often listed as a farmer? Was it preference or necessity? What tools did he own? How did the wife and children contribute to the family economy? Were there hired hands or slaves in the household? Where did they live? What were their lives like? What were the daily, weekly, and annual tasks and chores performed by the wife and children? What were the daily, weekly, and annual tasks and chores performed by the father and older sons?

The Context of the Environment
What is the geography or topography of the land? Is it hilly, flat, wooded? Are there many waterways or few? What is the soil type? What kinds of trees are native to the area? What kinds of birds and wildlife? What is the average weather in the area? When does the first frost occur? How did the climate affect the way the homes were built? How did it affect the crops they grew? Were there major environmental events during your ancestor's life—the year with no summer, the blizzard of '88, hordes of grasshoppers, a prairie fire? How was the family affected? How did your ancestor get around? Was it by road or by water, on horse or on foot? How far was the family from "civilization" such as courthouse, store, church, school?

The Context of Land and Migration
Was your ancestor one of the first into an area, or did he come only after the area was settled? Did he move with a group? What route did he follow to make the move? What were the roads like—or did the family use trains, canals, or river barges? Were many other people following the route at the same time?

Did he patent land? If he homesteaded, which law was it under, and what were the requirements? Was he able to fill the requirements? Where was the land? Can you locate it exactly? How big was it? What shape was it? Was it surveyed in metes and bounds or the rectangular survey system? How and why do you think he chose this particular piece of land? Did it have a creek running through it? If not, where do you think they got their water?

The Context of Military Duties
Was your ancestor in a militia? What did that mean? How was the group organized? How often did he have to drill? Did they wear uniforms? What kind of gun did he have? Did he even have a gun? If your ancestor saw service, what campaigns did he participate in? What was life like between battles? How far did they have to march? Were any of his friends neighbors, relatives in his unit? Was it a mounted or a foot unit? What kind of weapons did they use? Was he wounded or ill? What was the medical care like? What kind of hats did they wear?

How did your ancestor's family survive while he was gone? Did your ancestor (or his widow) get a pension? What were the requirements? Did they have to be destitute? How did they apply? Did your ancestor have to go into court to give a deposition? Are there stories buried in the pension files? How much was the payment? Did he have to go somewhere to pick it up?

The Context of Religion
What local church did your ancestors attend? How many members did it have? Who was the minister? Was he educated as a minister, or was he a farmer called to preach? How important was the church in the social life of the community? Did the church have assigned pews? Where was the pulpit? Did they sing in the church? What hymns? What denomination were they? What did it mean to be a Quaker, a Freewill Baptist, a Cumberland Presbyterian, a Puritan? How did the religion affect family life, their clothing, marriage customs, burial customs, their outlook on life and the afterlife?

Does your ancestor have a gravestone? How is the theology of the times represented by the gravestones? Does it have a symbol on it? What does that symbol signify? What does the epitaph say? Who carved the stone? What material is it made of? What shape is it? Who is buried nearby?

The Context of the Family
What was the average size of a family in this time and place? How far apart were the children spaced? What was the usual age at first marriage for a man, a woman? What was the child mortality rate? What was the average life span? How did your ancestor's family compare to the norm? Were the elderly typically a part of the family? What roles did they play? What were the procedures involved in getting married? Did the couple live with the parents at first? Why did the mother and father choose the names for the children that they did? Were they family names or names that were popular at the time? Were they Biblical names? Did they give middle names? Were nicknames routinely used?

The Context of History and Politics
Did any of the events of history and politics affect your ancestor and his family significantly, or were they distant? What party did he belong to? Was there a newspaper through which your ancestor could learn of the events? Did he subscribe? Could he read? Were battles of war fought nearby—or far away? Did any historical people or places touch the life of your ancestor?

The Context of the Community
Was your ancestor living in a settled community or on the frontier? How were the relations with the Indians? Was there a nearby fort or town in case of trouble? Was the community governed by a town meeting? Who attended? Where was the court held? How often? Where did your ancestor fit economically within the community? Was he a large landowner—or does his name appear in the warnings out?

The Context of Ethnicity
How did your ancestor's ethnic background affect his life? Did it influence his food preferences, economic goals, farming methods, favorite songs, church affiliation, holiday celebrations, even the structure of the family?

The Context of Society
How did the social structure affect your ancestor? Your ancestress? Were their roles strictly defined? How did society view children? Were they the center of attention, or were they ignored until they grew older? What was courtship like?

Were your ancestors slaves? Slave owners? Or one of the many non-slave-owning families in slavery areas? How did slavery affect your ancestors' lives? Was your ancestor an indentured servant? How was this condition different from/the same as slavery?

The Context of Law
At what age could a boy marry? A girl? What were the minimum and maximum ages for poll taxes? Through what age could a child be indentured? At what age could a child choose his or her own guardian? What happened procedurally when someone died without a will? Who inherited the land? Who inherited the personal property? Did the widow have dower rights? What were they? When land was sold, did a woman have to release dower? What was required to get a divorce? Who could run a tavern? Could your ancestor vote?

The Context of Records
Was any kind of official record created when your ancestor died? Why or why not? Had some doctor gotten interested in causes of mortality and gotten a law passed? How many people complied? What types of questions were asked on the censusand why? How did your ancestor's answers compare with other residents of the area? Could your ancestor write? If not, who put those entries in the family Bible? Did the entries appear to be written by a man or a woman, young or old, well or poorly educated? Did your ancestor's church keep records? What kind? How were the records they kept related to their beliefs? Is your ancestor listed in a city directory or a business directory? How big was the directory? How often was it published? How many others shared his occupation? What are the advertisements like?

See the entire series:
Part 1: Turning Paper into People
Part 2: Historical Context
Part 3: Clothing and Food
Part 4: Migration
Part 5: Land
Part 6: Ethnicity
Part 7: Housing
Part 8: Community
Part 9: Environment
Part 10: Family

Patricia Law Hatcher, CG, is a technical writer, instructor, and professional genealogist. She has written, edited, and produced numerous technical publications and self-published the four-volume Abstract of Graves of Revolutionary Patriots. With John V. Wylie, she co-authored Indexing Family Histories: Simple Steps for a Quality Product. Pat has written articles for The American Genealogist, The Maine Genealogist, The New Hampshire Genealogical Record, Ancestry, Genealogical Computing, and many other publications.