What is Gained by Researching Your Family Tree?
It is true, as Viv suggests, that very little of who I am as a person likely came from my 17th century ancestors. But that's not why I research my family history. I'm not looking to identify who I am by what my ancestors did, or even who they were. I don't expect to trace my family tree back to anyone that the history books might consider noteworthy. Even if I do discover a famous ancestor one day, it obviously wouldn't change one thing about me. Instead, I research my family history because it provides me with a personal look back into a history that I might not have otherwise ever discovered. The research process challenges me. The learning process enlightens me. The discoveries provide a sense of accomplishment.
What I have gained from researching my family tree is a much greater knowledge of the lives lived by my parents and grandparents, and yes -- the ones who came before them. The family tree research got me asking questions and digging through photos, and I'll always treasure the family stories that process turned up. The research findings I've shared with my living relatives have inspired even more stories and shared memories. I feel closer to my family. That I'll treasure forever.
That's why I research my family tree. What do you hope to gain from researching yours? Click on "comments" below and share your thoughts.
Comments
Talk about foolish comments that could only come from ignorance!! I agree with your reasons and add a few of my own. I research my family tree because it brings my ancestors to life when I find out about the history and geography surrounding the area and time of their lives. I also do the research because I have an insatiable curiousity about the reasons they did things like live on board a small sailing ship for 5 months while sailing from London down around the Horn and north to a tiny fort in a colony known as Vancouver’s Island? Or travelled overland from Ontario to the goldfields in British Columbia’s Cariboo region? These are just a couple of many of my questions about my ancestors’ lives and adventures. I’m afraid I see no resemblance between the answers that I’ve found and a horoscope! Not to mention that researching one’s family tree has very strong religious reasons for many and certainly belittling those people and their beliefs is not appropriate!
For me, it is never fogetting that these people who I come from, my ancestors, lived and loved just as I do today. I am of Polish heritage and once came across an old Russian proverb that says, “They are never really gone if they are remembered” What greater tribute to a life lived than to be remembered by those that never knew you. Their souls live in eternity and I live with the promise that someday we will finally meet. There is not greater gift…
I started out researching my family history to find out who my paternal great-grandparents were. It has turned into a trip back into time. It is so interesting to me to discover how and where my ancestors lived. And now all our family vacations are to places where our ancestors lived, worked or died.
It is the recipe that made us.
I tell my beginning genealogy classes that they are about to begin their own soap opera, one that is filled with villains and heroes and heroines. Some you will be very proud of and some you may not have chosen to be a friend. But it’s the search that is most fun and the people, living and dead, that you “meet” along the way. My husband likes to say, “Some women like to collect jewelry. My wife likes to collect cousins.” The quest has given me great pleasure and satisfies my strong curosity gene.
I have had the pleasure of finding and connecting with living distance cousins that I did know existed. If I had not been doing genealogy research, I still would not know them. There are many more living relatives out there than I had ever imagined. Although it is fun to research ancestors, it is also a way to connect with other distant relatives.
I’m not sure why I started researching my family, but I have learned so much about the present by studying the past. Most people live day to day and see the world with absolutely no context at all. It’s like reading one paragraph out of the middle of a book and then complaining because it doesn’t make sense.
Following the broadcast of Roots, my aunt began a search for her grandmother who was and “Indian Princess”. She ask me to stop and visit some relatives when I made a trip to the area where the lived. Needless to say my aunt did not find the princess, but I met relatives, i would have never know but for my aunt’s quest. I inheritied all her notes and have sorted discarded and done more research. No Indian Princess, not even documentation of Native American heritage, but I have met people who could tell me stories about my ancestors and the lives they lived. I have met some wonderful living people and learned about the people who lived the history I studied in school and passed on the customs from generations past. My live is enriched with the stories of the past and knowing some wonderful people I would have never known except through the stories passed from generation to generation.
I started doing genealogy for less than stellar reasons. I had a sister-in-law who did everything so very well I felt that I didn’t do as well. When she started doing genealogy and bragged about having Revolutionary war ancestors I knew that in this arena I could compete.
I did a little searching and I was hooked. I am very glad that I got into this before my mother died because if I had not so much would have been lost.
Yes my life has been enriched by knowing some history of my family. It makes American History live for me; my folks were there!
Am I different because I do genealogy? probably I always enjoyed a good story but now I really enjoy family stories. I am enriched by knowing more about my ancestors; the naughty and the nice.
Yes, people do pick out bits and pieces of their family history to point out and polish up. That’s part of what happens when you begin to appreciate the fact that you belong to something that is bigger than you. All of the reasons in the comments I’ve read are true. A sense of history, a curiosity about why those people did what they did…..but for me, it’s a lot about belonging to something that stretches through more than my lifetime. They left their mark in quiet (or not so quiet ways) and it’s through those “good anecdote”(s) that so much of our own personalities are shaped. How many times has the lesson that great-grandpa learned about not teasing the bull been told? What more romantic story is there than the way that grandma met grandpa and how much they loved each other throughout their lives — now that’s what a marriage is about! And what about the way that shooting that cowboy changed the lives of Great-uncle William and his wife and daughters?—see what losing your temper can cost you? And what about Great-grandma Johnson who lost her husband in a war when she was pregnant with her third child? See how she survived and built a life for herself? She had to be strong and so she was and it all turned out okay and you know what, you came from that same stock, you’ve got her “grit” and it will be okay when you hit that hard part of the road. That’s not the stuff of horoscopes, that’s the lessons of your ancestors being passed down to you and letting you know that you can make it through whatever you have to face (just don’t lose your temper and shoot that cowboy!)
Viv Groskop may have been bored to death by someone going on and on about their own personal history. But there are many reasons for pursuing genealogy as evidenced by the posts here. In order not to bore others, I will forgo the details of my family tree and get to the main reason.
I started 40 years ago for two reasons, I found out my grandfather had changed his surname to Walker and I had a great-aunt that I adored that knew all about our extended family. And though my great-aunt knew our cousins, aunts and uncles, she knew nothing about her own grandparents. This is despite the fact that she lived with her father for over forty years! So, it occurred me that our ancestors had tried
to make their world a better place for their children and yet their children don’t even know their names. I figure I can at least fix that.
Researching my family history has made the past generations so real to me and I agree with the other comments but want to add, unless someone has tried this, there is no way they can understand the depth of our feelings for the past. They were real, live people with all the problems. . .and more!. . .that we have today. I cherish everyone of them and, too, believe they are waiting for me in heaven. . .maybe even prodding me a little when I get to busy to finish this task I set for myself!
I love Genealogy it is a great past time and hobbie. If anyone scoffs at it they have there reasons;Oh Well! They probably don’t know what they are missiing or they have may have too many skeletons in their own closets and are too afraid to look! Dare to be different!
I started my family research over 30 years ago. I have a cousin who started over 50 years ago. We share information with each other all the time. Through my cousin I found out our “Pioneer Ancestor’s started the town we are living in. And we are related to most people here! That can be scary! I keep a low profile and am working on a history book for all my family and relatives to enjoy. I try to keep an open mind and live and learn. My children and grandchildren will have these priceless memories. In fact one of my children had a genealogy project in their class. I put a notbook together which took me about 1/2 hour. I put newspaper clippings and xeroxed copies and notes. I went with my child to “show and tell” and helped to present it. The teacher and class were amazed. It was history brought to life, and part of my child’s heritage. The rest of the class did the same with their families. Now that is the ripple effect in possitive form! I thank “God” for this blessing
When my mother began living in a nursing home, I began researching her family tree as a way to pass the time when I visited her. I subscribed to a genealogy website and I would look up births, deaths and marriages, then take the info to Mom. It seemed to stimulate her memory. She had a stroke and her short-term memory was not there any longer, but we found she could remember details about these relatives that were long gone except in her memory.I contacted a cousin who had photos she had never identified (she had considered discarding them) Mom recognized many of the people in the photos and I recorded her thoughts just as she related them to me, then reprinted them in an album for her birthday. When Mom died just a few weeks later I inherited a real treasure from her. The gifted her with the book, but her gift was far more valuable and will live on.
Knowing where I came from helps me to know where I am going and what valuable information I can leave for my descendants. At least they will know better what I had to research for them to know their heritage.
I disagree with people who think that our ancestors have nothing to do with who we are. I never knew my maternal grandmother but found out late in life, she played the organ and sang. She loved dancing. The strangest thing is when people look at a picture I have of her on my wall, they want to know when I had that old-fashion picture made. Genetics are much stronger in my opinion than we in our society give them credit for. We shoose to call ourselves :selfmade” and yes that can be true. But the basic building blocks remain the same for many generations. It is the mixing that gives us choices of what our life is going to mean to ourselves and society. Bottom line,– We are what we are made of; Our flavor is what we do with it.
I started tracing my family tree after I saw Roots. I thought if Alex Haley could do it so could I. I had heard stories since I was a little girl about ancestors in the south, the great grandfather who escaped from a Civil War prison camp and I wanted to know if they were true. I’ve also met a lot of cousins I never would have known about. My ancestors passed on family traits and DNA that are a part of me. Tracing your roots can also show health issues, diseases that are genetic and passed on.
I do it to preserve the past for future generations. Some branches are so well documented, others are not. Everyone is part of a family tree. Everyone deserves to be counted.
I started tracing our family tree because my grandfather knew nothing about his fathers family. I wanted to solve the mystery and find why they left England and made Australia their home….I’ve uncovered amazing stories and unknown relatives. Its like reading a mystery novel backwards - you know the ending and want to find the beginning.
I’m hooked.
Her comments are ridicolous.
There are a few reasons as to why I do this. To begin with, when I was ten years old, my parents took a German history class. They were taking the class because they wanted to find out about the history of our last name. We found out that there are two towns in Germany called Heyen, but we still dont know anything about these towns, or if we are even connected to them. Around about this same time one of my fathers cousins gave us a notebook of some research she had done.
I went with my parents to this class, and I remember seeing the slides of the German towns and homes, and the maps, and this completely intrigued me, and then when our cousin gave us the information, I got lost in it. I am now not just a genealogy freak, but a history freak.
There is another reason now that I enjoy doing this research. I am unable to have children. Unable to pass on the essence of ME. But if I can record this information, and give it to my family and cousins who are having children, and help pass it on. Then I am, in a way, passing on the history and the family ideas, and bascially who we are.
Oh and one more reason, I am also a mystery freak…..Sherlock Holmes has nothing on me!
Kimberly, my reasons, I love history and researching ancestors seems to make it more personal, and my grandchildren seem to have more interest in history when I can tell them of a distant relative.
And I want to find out all the little pieces that made up me. It’s also adictive, you find one and you want to find another relative.
I have also found new cousins which is also exciting and who knows we may someday trace an ancestor all the way back to the one that started all this, LOL.
Perry Wise-Nov.12,2007
“Cuimhnich air na daoine on tainig thu”
Gaelic for “Remember those from whom you are descended”
Not to brag about them, but honor them.
I started researching my family once I went to my family to start having family reunions in 1998. Needless to say, it has be rewarding, challenging and frustrating. I now wish I had taken the time to “listen” to my grandparents relate stories about their parents and grandparents and stories about what it was like “up home”. I do find it fascinating to hear my parents and other elders tell stores they’ve heard down through the generations. If we don’t get the information now, it’ll be lost forever!
Keep searching…..
I agree and there are several good reasons that were previously mentioned. It is a self searching task but it can be very interesting. Another fact is that many illnesses are hereditary.