Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
why genealogy? mostly pride and vanity. i credit my aging mother in having the honesty to tell me the truth and encourage me to get a DNA. she was right, we did not in fact come over on the mayflower and Louie VI was not my gran daddy. this was not popular info with the family, people lie alot.
They do indeed lie, Huckleberry. My dad and I have hit a brick wall with his maternal line. She always told everybody that the family was French-Canadian (whatever that means). In fact, her family was Irish-Catholic in a time and place when it was not popular to be either. Years ago, when my dad contacted relatives, looking for information about his great-grandfather, the response was unpleasant and questioned his desire to learn more about those "poor, drunk, fill-in-the-blanks." Ouch!
I like to keep track of the people who came before. I want them to be remembered. For example, my grandfather died young, so I never knew him. I found out he had a twin and found details about his brother who I never knew either.
I have become such a booster of the US Census, since without this information so much about our ancestors would be lost forever.
I got interested in genealogy as a teen because I loved history. I wanted to know even with my living relatives at the time what it was like for them, when they were growing up. I put together a family tree and have been interested in genealogy off and on for a long time now.
I was sort of interested when my cousin was doing my mother's family in Vermont but my real interest was in my dad's family, a total mystery. They had come from England in 1912--but why? from where? Who were they?
We were not allowed to ask! At my dad's funeral in 1996, his brother mentioned to me that he would love to know his grandfather's name and I said I had this new thing called a computer and would give it a try.
Some kind soul in NZ had access to the English census and provided a profile of the family with the father, mother, and children--my grandfather as a little boy. There began serious delving and connecting with English cousins who were wonderful. Then the online group sponsored a genealogy trip--and I went. More amazement when I walked where they walked and saw where they lived and met online friends and those wonderful cousins!
There were tragic discoveries and sadness beyond belief but now I know. The search also helped me to deal with the loss of my father--I figured, if you lose someone, you need to find someone. And I found new relatives dead and alive. It's a great adventure, a puzzle, a learning experience, brings the past alive. There's always some new trail to follow.
For whatever reason I grew up in a household of people who continually blamed their plight on mysterious societal powers that kept us down. My sibling succumbed to that mentality and just sort of laid down in life. I never did, don’t know why I was wired different, but I studied our founding fathers and emulated the classic renaissance man of yore as best I could. I built my fortune as our Founding Fathers did, eking out first a modest living and then using industry to leverage my skills. I never succumb to the hardluck stories I heard, I drew strength from the story of Franklin in particular, how he grew up n what amounted to a cast system and broke out of that mold and labored to help establish a country where men were free to pursue their dreams and individual idea of happiness. In my day, this was not taught in schools. Then like now the liberal oppression submission model was taught. So whenever I felt down, I looked to our Founding fathers for inspiration as they were the inspirational characters in my life.
Cut to today, I am generally considered well off so I can indulge myself. One of those indulgences is genealogy. I wanted to learn why my family was like it was, why they felt so persecuted etc. And what I found is, it was all B.S. Sure there was a streak of misfortune, but it was happenstance, the economy, lack of medical knowledge etc, not a vast conspiracy. And there was more, I learned that at least two Presidents were ancestors of mine. That we came to this land in 1620. We have Churches named for us, member in the legislature, past fortunes etc,etc. There are large monuments dedicated in our name, statues of my ancestors. There is no reason on earth why anyone of my blood line should not succeed except failure of the self or simple misfortune. It is my misfortune that as a child I did not know who we were, our place in history. Heck I could have gained strength for the well documented courage my ancestors showed in many wars and the ingenuity and craft in establishing our government.
So now I document and research for future generations, so my grandchildren can wear their surname with pride and when they feel weak they can reflect on G.x grandpa or grandma and suck it up and do it for them, to show our bloodline is still strong and to carry on what should have been a proud tradition. Genealogy showed me, we had no reason to bow our heads to any man, say for humility sake.
Now I chuckle to myself as I recount the negative why you can’t stories of my childhood. I wish my parents would have know who we were and where we came from; it may have made all the difference in their lives, the chances they took and their ambitions. I hope it makes a difference to my grandchildren. And that is why I pursue genealogy.
Right now -- I am wondering the same thing -- WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF? I'm trying to unwind one husband two wives at the same time who may be sisters or cousins, all having children, two of whom has the same birthdate and name as my next ancestor, their son...
And they seem to go by the middles name because they are all anna somethings...and ALL the last names involved have 4327 different spellings!
To make matters WORSE... these people are all in Maryland, so I have to learn a whole new system to try to find these people and where and who and ...oy vey.
In all honesty, I think several people got caught up in "leafing" and just started connecting things.... and the names are common so all sorts of info comes up and no one really looked at it just added....
Just like I did when I started doing this when I was very tired...
I do it because my parents divorced when I was very young and I did not have much history from either side...I just wanted to know. Found some quite famous ancestors, marriages and children nobody knew about as well as deaths directly related to the Haymarket riots in Chicago. And the other side got more interesting when a cousin asked me to help him put together our shared lineage so he could apply for dual citizenship. What should have been a relatively easy track become ridiculously convoluted and twisted involving murder within the family, abandoned children and assumed identities. I swear my research is the stuff movies are made from...ughh...
I always say I'm in it for the thrill of the hunt, but I think I'm really in it because I have this insatiable desire just to uncover the 'truth'.
Location: East St. Paul 651 forever (or North St. Paul) .
2,860 posts, read 3,386,383 times
Reputation: 1446
Because we're RACIST!
Seriously though, because it's interesting and can give a person a sense of belonging, and pride.
And because this isn't the politics forum I won't touch on why people find genealogy research offensive or backwards, but that's their problem.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
