A family story becomes firmer when somebody records who first told it.

Provenance changes what a story is. A tale everybody knows and nobody can source drifts, gathers detail and turns into folklore, while the same tale with a name attached, told by this person, in this year, about that event, stays anchored. Recording it does not make it true; it makes it traceable. Later generations can weigh what they are able to locate.

Next time a family story is told, write down in one line who told it and when. Ask how they came to know it. Two sentences of provenance today are worth more than an hour of guessing in thirty years.