Genealogy Blog
September 17, 2007
Genealogy obsession
I have some friends that don’t understand my obsession with genealogy (yes,
it is an obsession!). One of those friends comes from a large family,
and she tells me it is difficult enough keeping up with all her brothers and
sisters, she doesn’t need to find new relatives. Several other friends
see it as living in the past, while ignoring the present or future.
But, I disagree with both. From my perspective, they just don’t get
it. For me, the process of discovering new ancestors or relatives is akin to
playing detective. I love the challenge, piecing together the bits of
information I’ve discovered, using deductive reasoning, solving a mystery
and uncovering a fascinating story.
As for living in the past, I have always been a firm believer that the
ability to meet the future depends on our understanding of the past.
History, and the lessons it teaches us, can unlock many of those questions
we face in our day to day life. If we understand how we got here,
perhaps we can better choose the roads we will take in the future.
When uncovering the stories of my family’s past, I will confess I readily
embrace the pride of their accomplishments and sacrifices. Yet, I have
never felt the need to take on the guilt for some of their actions. I try to
keep history in perspective, and understand that the world my ancestors
lived in, was not necessarily the same world, nor the same code of ethics,
that I live in today.
What does amaze me, is how the story of some long ago ancestor has the
ability to reach across time and evoke a sincere wave of compassion and
sorrow. One example of this was when I realized my great-grandmother was
younger than my daughter when she died, and was a mother of four, with 6
pregnancies. Her story was like so many of the young women of that
era, where birth control was taboo, and women often died from complications
of child birth.
And there is another reason I am hooked on genealogy. People need to
be remembered, not just presidents and movie stars. Average, everyday
people, need to be remembered. They were here once, and some people
like me, hear them calling out…remember me….remember me….
(The photograph is of my father-in-law as a baby. He died when my husband was a young child...we want future generations to remember him.)
- BAJH
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