I love genealogy. I love the mysteries and the sleuthing. I love the rush I get when I find even the tiniest of thread in the patchwork which is my family tree. To me, it is an example of critical thinking at its best.
So why don't more people love it? To be specific, why don't more of my relatives love it? The reason I am complaining is because it would make my research yield so much more if there were more of my kinfolk researching.
I use ancestry.com as a base for most of my online research. After you find a record of one of your ancestors, there is a link to all the other people researching that particular person. It is so frustrating for me that whenever I click on that link, it rarely leads to anyone. I have found one person--ONE person--that was also researching a shared ancestor. It felt like I had discovered a new planet. In the other cases where there was another person looking for the same ancestor, I either knew more than they did or their information was incorrect.
Sometimes I send out queries to people whom I have deduced may be related to me. They rarely respond. I think some may suspect my motives but mostly I believe they're indifferent.
Maybe that is why it so exciting to me to find out that I have at least one cousin--Barbara-- that shares my love and thirst for knowledge when it comes to genealogy.
5 comments:
I don't have good luck with making contact on Ancestry.com either. Part of me thinks that some people don't visit Ancestry as much as they used to, and their email addresses aren't updated. Or...they just don't want to talk to me.
It's frustrating, but we can't give up the search.
When I told my sister of my finds she said "That's really great, I am glad someone is doing it."
Guess that is how your relatives feel too.............
Claudia and Amy, sorry for being so tardy. I didn't get notification of your comments, at least not in my inbox. I find genealogy to be a solitary pursuit. Sometimes that's a good thing but it would be so helpful if there was help.
I feel your pain. I wish there was someone else who felt as passionate as I do about it...just so I could bounce ideas or theories off of them. Oh well...at least we have each other in the online community supporting each other. Great blog, I will be following.
Great blog and I feel your pain when it comes to relatives who don't share your same passion for genealogy. I wish there was just one other person in my family who felt as strongly as I do...just to bounce ideas or theories off of them. Oh well...thankfully those on the online community have been very supportive and helpful. Good luck on your searches. :)
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