Do genealogy? Really?
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You are currently browsing comments. If you would like to return to the full story, you can read the full entry here: “Do genealogy? Really?”.
Jun 10, 2012 @ 08:04:46
All of these are very valid reasons, and I agree with you wholeheartedly.
I think I initially began to give my self a sense of belonging in a particular family. I was the only child of my parent’s union and they did both remarry and have other children with their second spouses. I love my siblings but at times I felt I didn’t belong to either group. I know it may sound odd to others, but I always felt growing up I was an outsider looking in rather than a sense of belonging. Genealogy has given me a sense of where I belong in the family.
Secondly I love history, puzzles and logic problems; genealogy is all that rolled up into one!
Thanks Mark for the really insightful post.
E
Jun 10, 2012 @ 09:03:02
I agree with you Mark that the rewards of genealogy are positive. One element that I particularly find rewarding is the joy of finding the next piece of the puzzle. Brick Walls, newspaper research, working out transcription errors. I like soduku puzzles but genealogy is a better challenge. Another gain is the contact with others that are in some way related, through family or the genealogy bug. There are so many kind people offering assistance and there are those who are really grateful if you manage to crack a mystery that has vexed them.
Jun 10, 2012 @ 14:14:53
Mark, All these points you are mentioning are well made. We all need to know where we have come from and this too helps lead our way into the future and for generations that will follow us as they use our examples we set the good and bad.
Jun 10, 2012 @ 15:41:30
Like each of you, I find the discovery joyful and “surprising”.
Jun 10, 2012 @ 22:52:41
I like the depth and breadth of your ponderings on why we do genealogy, Mark. Everything you said hit a chord with me. I would add that one of the great paradoxes of life is to see ourselves as we might have been, or may yet become, and nowhere have I found it more piquant than in the discoveries from my research.
Such as, discovering that my ancestors were on both sides of the war in the American Civil War, sometimes even from the same family. Lately I have been working in Medieval records, and found that my one family line was on the winning side in the battle of Val-as-Dunes in 1047. Another of my direct lines was on the losing side, and died in the battle.
We won. We lost.