It is personally rewarding to know your roots.  It has been our experience that knowing your roots can help a person discover who they are in life and how they fit in.  Does this sound corny?  You may think so, but the truth remains that a large percentage of people go through life wanting more out of it or wanting an answer as to their purpose or how they fit in.  Knowing your roots helps a person figure themselves out.  This is a hobby for the young and old.

There is much more involved in this though… each time you discover another piece of family history in the United States you uncover a piece of American history from the human perspective.  A nation’s history is a collective story of the individual people’s histories.  To find the fullest meaning of a nation’s culture and what it means or how it fits in, you have to study the history of the people who helped form the country.

Many people have encountered great satisfaction in tracing their family history.  Some have a sketchy trace that goes back for centuries whereas others prefer to gather more detailed information on just a few generations back, compiling personal stories and photographs.  Both types of family history research can prove exciting.  Each time you find a new person or new fact it is thrilling.  As well, to find records rich with information, that would have gone unnoticed or untouched is exciting and a part of history.  The magnetism of doing genealogy research is in the diversity of what can be found and the excitement each new find brings.

Genealogy addiction comes with frustration as well.  Every family history researcher shares the frustration of wondering if there was something else that could have been uncovered, or some record missed.  This is a frustration that all genealogy researchers learn to live with but it never diminishes the curiosity of looking for more.

For the serious genealogy researcher, strong dedication is needed, a true love of the past and even a fanatical pursuit of genealogy clues and leads.  As ancestors become real people in our minds, there is a sense of fulfillment.  Yet, there may be some disappointment if we realize that now there are even more leads yet to follow.  The path never ends.  The serious genealogy researcher must also plunge themselves into the archives of libraries, societies and repositories, ignoring their daily life routine many times.  The commitment must run deep and lack of sleep will most likely happen.  A sense of purpose is what drives them day and night, the curiosity is never ending.  The family history researcher must be an optimist.  For being an optimist allows them to continue on with a willingness to research every new lead, thinking the answer must be around the corner.  This is the kind of person you learn to be once you become fully involved in genealogy research.

Family history, many times, is a tradition carried on from one generation to the next via oral history, bibles and journals, prior research, etc.  It becomes a family affair with the connection to each other running on for many generations.  Without this rich history of oral or written traditions, we would not have any idea of our cultures or how we fit in.  The re-telling of family stories from one person to the next is as old as time.  This is part of being human.  Passing on family history is how a family feels a sense of ancestral unity through time.  Older members of the family can serve the very important role of passing on known information to the younger members.  Beware however, stories are usually changed, distorted, exaggerated, and re-made as they are told through the years.

These ideas are what we feel to be the essence or purpose of family history research.  These are the reasons that so many people find it thrilling, rewarding and important.  Who knows?  One day you may experience the magnetism and addiction of genealogy.  Then you will be the one to pass on the connections between your ancestors and descendants.  If this is something you love and are interested in, it can be the adventure of a lifetime… or should we say the adventure FOR a lifetime!

Family History Research

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