Baby Boomers Writing Memoirs.

• Position: FAMILY LORE

Baby boomers witnessed and experienced a lot in their formative years, such as the Cold War, space race, political assassinations, Vietnam War, civil rights protests, and Watergate. Now they are reaching an age when many may want to pass along their experiences, memories, and family stories to their children and grandchildren--and that urge could not be happening at a better time.

Over the last several years, science and technology have been making game-changing strides in the world of genealogy and boomers have at their disposal the tools to verify and strengthen those family stories that were not available previously.

"It's amazing what we can learn today about ourselves and our ancestors, and the role they may have played in history" says Ceil Lucas, a sociolinguist, amateur genealogist, and editor and coauthor of 22 books.

Her most-recent effort is How I Got Here: A Memoir, which chronicles her early years growing up in Guatemala and Italy. "You can go online and find documents that at one time might have required years of research and some traveling to view"

Some of the ways technology has changed family research for the better include:

Genealogy websites. Numerous websites assist...