From time to time I spend a bit of time researching our family trees.
As soon as you go back a few generations, you’re often in the situation that you know almost nothing about your ancestors. Typically, you’ll know their name and details of their birth, as well as the names of their parents and spouse and perhaps some of their siblings; perhaps you’ll also know their occupation and where they lived.
However, that is all. People who lived long and full lives and whose genes are alive in our bodies are now reduced to a few titbits of statistical information.
I’m starting to think we should all write our memoirs. Not necessarily huge books, perhaps just ten or twenty pages, but something that our descendants might one day dig out and enjoy reading.
Of course there is no guarantee that your memoirs won’t be chucked out unread by an insensitive ancestor, but I would think there should be a good chance they’ll survive, especially these days when it’s so easy to make a large number of copies.