Why Do Family History Research?
Why do family research? ….. inherited disease, unsatisfied curiosity, amazing stories, old photos, intrepid immigrants, parish paupers, successful pioneers, brick (stone) walls that need just need to be investigated, travel destinations, the joy of meeting cousins, tales that are doubted but need to be proved, working with others to tell a family story, publication of a history, to add to previous research, adoption, inherited objects ………
What sort of story do you want? Choose from the above. Our family has all and more. There are those who came, returned, came and returned.
Brother and sister married brother and sister! Wading ashore at Port Phillip. Horses, diaries, houses, war, letters and maps. Sadness, orphans, separation, child migrants. Generous siblings. Heroes knighthoods. Sudden appearance of a whole new family. Famous spots with alternate stories. Bigamy, strange transcribing, ancient writing, variable spellings and missing ones. Why did they leave such beautiful places?
A million reasons for searching old records, newspapers, oral stories, census records and data bases. Collecting certificates, register entries, shipping lists and property settlements. Storing files, boxes, piles of paper and folders of possibly useful stuff like origins of names. Reading journals, books and collections. Filling Genealogy data bases with snippets gleaned from correspondence, checking and authenticating each date and name or using the clue of abt. for unproven dates. Deciding what to share with relatives, how much to give to strangers with the request ‘not to publish as the records are a collection put together by many who need to be acknowledged and some details have not been proved’.
We just do it.
Author: Marg Mansfield – 2007
The five stages of genealogy
- Denial – I’m NOT related to you
- Anger – I’m related to YOU ?
- Bargaining – Okay, I’m related to you …but ONLY by marriage
- Depression – You mean I AM related to you ?
- Acceptance – I guess I AM related to you.
