Someone in your family wrote things down so you’d know where you came from. Ask to see them.

Somebody in your family took the trouble to write things down, and they did it for a reader they would never meet, which happens to be you. Those pages are a message sent forward on purpose. Nobody ever has to ask for them, which is usually why they sit in a drawer unread for a generation.

Ask whoever holds the family papers if you can see them, and sit down with them properly instead of photographing them for later. Write down the questions they raise while somebody is still around to answer.