There are hundreds of websites out there that assist people in researching their family histories and create ‘family trees’, but I don’t understand why this research is so popular.
Why does anybody care about a bunch of people whom they have never met, and never will meet because they’re already dead. Why are people so fascinated by their ancestors? They wouldn’t be interested in these people if they weren’t related to them, so why should they care about them just because they have share some distant genetic relation?? Why bother???
Actually, I would be interested in these people even if I weren’t related to them, but then I’m a bit of a history nerd. I like the real-life aspects of history, and want to know what life was like for them.
But I’ve been vaguely working on tracing my family’s geanology rather than just browsing what other people have done. It becomes a fascination, rather like putting a puzzle together. To figure out if and how this Moore over here relates to this More over here and from there how they relate to me can be an intricate process.
The other aspect of this is that I have a very unusual last name (not Moore, though that name’s in the genealogy), and it’s just the idea of wanting to know where it came from and how we ended up where we are today. My father doesn’t talk much about his family, so the information I do have has come through the little I’ve done.
Some people do it because they want to find more relatives, and some do it just because. If I ever get deeper into it rather than skimming the surface, I have the feeling that I’ll be one of the just because people.
Sometimes people research and document their genealogy to join organizations or be eligible for scholarships.
In order to become a member of the Daughters of the Confederacy, for example, one must be a relative of someone who served in the armed forces of the Confederate States of America.
I was never all that interested until I started working at a research library–then I got the research bug and just couldn’t stop. I loved making the connections, pouring over old newspapers (or buzzing through the microfilm), scanning through city directories, the whole process fascinated me. We also did research there for people who wrote in to us and I enjoyed doing that just as much as I enjoyed working on my own family.
Most of the people who used our collections did so out of a desire to have the genealogy to leave to their families after they died. Unfortunately, there were also those who were trying to prove some Native American heritage so they could claim their share of casino profits–but there weren’t too many of those.
For me, there are two aspects which make it interesting. Firstly, I enjoy the puzzle-solving aspect of it. It’s fun tracking down the clues.
Secondly, it helps put meat on the bones of history. The American Revolution, for example, suddenly becomes much more personal to me if I know how Ancestor X was participating in it.
Just compiling a family tree with a list of names and dates holds no interest for me. I like to try to find out personal details of the lives of ancestors, to gain an appreciation for the way they lived.
LDS church has many geneological records since the church stresses the importance of family not just in this life but staying together in the hereafter; some even choose to baptise the ancestors.
But researching your ancestors can be very interesting; my Dad went back just 2 generations on his mother’s side (her parents) and brought the family forward to the present generation. It really was fascinating to read and while researching for the book my Dad met and talked with many of his aunts and uncles, especially getting them to relate stories from their childhood (there were 13 children in the family!). All told, from his grandparents, there were well over 250 descendants! One of my Dad’s brothers researched their father’s side of the family; he went all the way back to the first one to come to America, so he did quite a bit of research (1655! LOL); much of it was from church records and wills but it also was quite fascinating to read about all these people; he also met and spoke with many relatives, some of whom he didn’t even realize were relatives! I think it gives me a bit of perspective about my antecedents–where I come from and what life was like for my ancestors. Maybe it helps too that I’m a bit of a history nerd also! LOL
As has been mentioned before it’s fun. It’s this very complex and difficult puzzle which actually happened.
You come across some fascinating stuff. I got to read my 3rd great grandfathers Civil War letters which were quite poetic. I got to read about the case of my 10th great granduncle and his tragic end which drove his wife mad. And read about how the insanity drove her to try and murder her children and a few others and about the kind circuit judge who tried to insure that she got better and received the inheritance stolen from her by her in-laws.
Some people do feel that connection with people who died centuries ago.
And on a more practical side it’s useful to know what each and every one of your dead blood relatives died from.
zwei. Census On-Line. Freely transcripted census schedules are nice. I did a few of them. IGI are fairly useful. And if you stick to the batches that begin with a C, P or M (Church, Parish or Marriage records) they’re pretty accurate. Freely provided by the LDS. Forums divided into surnames, counties and others are useful for finding data provided by other researchers. County by county webpages some with useful data. Some with nothing really there. You’ll find some data I’ve provided there too like transcribing several pages out of various will books for Jasper Co., GA.