Investigating Autobiographies and hand written Records by family members

Dec 4 2004 my grandmother's house burned down. We salvaged what we could from the wreckage of the home and begin to catalog the contents. Among the contents was a metal lock box that had belonged to my grandfather , who passed in 1988. Grandma had never looked inside it because it was locked. With a little prying we managed to open the box. Inside was a birth certificate for me, his father's death certificate and a handwritten genealogy account from his sister Clyde Alice Parrish Willoughby.

Alice had also written an autobiography, which I have read in its entirety. She didn't write this until she was in her 80's. While she was able to recall things with remarkable detail there were inconsistencies with dates. This is understandable considering how many children she had (15 birth dates to keep up with.) and how many places she moved during her life.

So the point is, even if you get information from other relatives, you still need to verify it yourself.