Dick Eastman’s Newsletter of 7 June 2018 asked the question ‘Why
do we study genealogy?
Genealogy is defined as the direct descent of an individual
or group from an ancestor.
It is a simpler question than ‘Why do we study
family history’.
Family History I believe is to research not only our lines
of descent but also the details of our family members, their occupations, the
places they lived and the social influences that affected their lives. It is
trying to understand what made them do what they did. One question that crops
up as you discover more about them is why they survived to create the generations
of our family. They endured war, disease, poverty and occupational injuries.
Sometimes they were working with the law and sometimes they appeared on the
opposite side or merely as witnesses. Every event creating a record of their existence.
So why do we study family history? It is because:-
- It is curiosity.
- It is the search.
- It is the sense of knowing
more about the family than other members of it know.
- It is the discovery.
- It is the puzzle as to
where to look.
- It is finding sources that
add to the search.
- It is the discovering
characters that you like and wish you had known.
- It is the discovering characters
that you feel you would not have liked, but wish you had known.
- It is the challenge of a ‘brick
wall’ and the joy at demolishing it.
- It is the history of the
place that the family inhabited.
- It is the history of the
country that affected them.
- It is the journeys they
undertook and the reason why they traveled.
- It is an addiction.
So why do you study family history?
