Are you thinking about researching your family history?
Are you interested in your family history but don’t know much about it?
Do you not have a clue about your family tree?
Did grandmother tell you a story about an ancestor that was a mystery?
If you answered YES to any of these questions, then you have come to the right place.
In this series, I will take you from the first steps of researching your family history to showing you how to really dive in and learn about your family.
So, what is the family history craze about anyway?
What IS genealogy? The word GENEALOGY is the study and tracing of lines of descent.
In other words, it’s the study of your family tree and how you and people in your tree connect to your ancestors.
Did you know that genealogy is the 2nd most popular hobby in the United States, second only to gardening?
National Archives Building
Are you thinking that tracing your family history is complicated, time-consuming or expensive?
Genealogy used to be a hobby that required traveling to cemeteries, libraries, and archives to gather records that were relevant to family histories.
The expense of traveling to collect these records made genealogy a hobby that could get quite expensive, and not an easy feat for all Americans.
Accessing the records of our ancestors required traveling to far off locations where our early ancestors lived, or hire researchers to look up the records, and mail us copies, and all of those took money.
My adult children laugh at how all our family vacations centered around a missing ancestor and that MY highlight of the trip always involved visiting a cemetery!
Times have changed, and so has genealogy research.
Today, the internet makes gathering these records very easy for most people.
The web has many free or affordable sites for genealogists.
Many historical records have been digitized, photographed, or scanned and uploaded for public use.
Online genealogy sites make it easy to access these records that give us details about our ancestors. Additionally, they often allow us to connect with others that may be researching related families.
And if you don’t have access to the internet, no worries, you can visit local libraries.
They almost always have subscriptions to the most popular genealogy websites, and they are free to use.
No more traveling to far away places to access records that apply to your ancestors. Not only that, there will be no more dragging your kids through graveyard after graveyard, because now, there are 1000s of cemetery records available online.
With a computer, the internet, and a little guidance tracing your family history has never been easier.
Why Should I Care About My Dead Ancestors?
By now, you are probably thinking, why in the world would want to know about my dead ancestors?
WHY do we even care about ancient relatives?
Are there important reasons to learn about our family history?
I believe there are several reasons, some more important than others. Let’s examine some of those reasons:
Family Stories
Almost all of us have family stories that our parents or grandparents told us.
Stories of celebrations, weddings, and funerals.
They tell us stories about our family’s travels to new lands and stories about our native lands.
Whatever the stories are, they are stories of our family and our histories and they are important to pass on to the younger members.
These stories live only in the minds of our oldest living relatives and will be lost if we don’t document them.
Learning about our family histories and documenting them, will validate those stories, and give a sense of belonging.
In a way, knowing these stories will connect us to our ancestors.
Names of Ancestors are Lost
In this high-tech world, we live in, most of us have no clue the name of even 1 of our 16 gg-grandparents.
Did you know everyone has 64 gggg-grandparents? And yet, most of us do not know one of their names.
Our history is lost to most of us, and even the names of our ancestors are lost if we don’t document them.
Family History Reminds Us of Where We Come From
Family histories remind us of where we came from.
How did we get here?
Who was our immigrant ancestor?
What was their culture like?
What languages did they speak?
Where did our family traditions come from?
A study of our ancestors can answer many of these questions.
In addition, our family histories can tell us what life was like for our ancestors.
The lives of our ancient relatives become personal to us when we research and discover details about them.
Knowing where we come from gives us roots, a sense of belonging to a broader group.
It gives us a grounding and often shapes where we are going.
Other Reasons to Research Family History
There are other reasons to research family history.
Some people are looking for birth parents.
Or maybe you need to track down your medical history or conditions.
For some of us, the search is simply about looking to satisfy a curiosity or solve a family mystery.
Genealogy is OUR personal history and it helps us understand just how we fit into this world.
Establishing our reasons for researching our family histories is the first step in learning something about ourselves and our family’s journeys.
What will your reasons be?
Stay tuned to the Genealogy Research Series for tips on how to start your family tree research.
The series will explain the very first steps to take in your search.
I will teach you what records will help you learn details about your ancestors.
This Genealogy Research Series will show you where to find the records and what information you can extract from them.
Join us for this Genealogy Research Series and I will teach you how to get started tracing your family tree.
Click here to find a list of other posts and videos in this series that are guaranteed to guide you in your search for ancestors!
Until next time!
Happy Hunting!
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