One of my recent hobbies (read distraction for when I get stressed) is genealogy. I got interested in charting where I came from about ten years ago, but technology wasn't such that it was easy to do back then. You either had to do it the old-fashioned way and track down county records in dusty rooms or order databases that may or may not have been useful to your search. Now a lot of stuff is online and its much easier to get leads.
I've been using the latest version of Family Tree Maker, which is pretty much the monolopy product in genealogy. It wasn't really that good when it first came out (I used version 4 originally), but with 16 versions, anything can get good :). Now it integrates with the Ancestry.com databases, which give you US census records from 1830-1930, which can be incredibly useful. They list every person who lived in a particular household, which at least for the male line, can often give you the whole line across this period if you line up birth dates and locations. The other datasources have not been nearly as useful for me, but have the potential if you get lucky with what they have scanned in (like obituaries).
The most interesting thing about this hobby is that it has slightly changed the way I look at the world. Now whenever I hear a name, I wonder about where it came from and if I'm somehow related to it. I look more closely at historical markers on the side of the road. It also gives me a feeling like I'm much more connected to my past and goes a bit of a way to lessen my fear of mortality. Even if this turns out to just be a phase, I think I will have gained something great from it.
2 comments:
Ryan-
It appears that you have "stumbled" into the currently most popular hobby in the world. I started by an accident about eleven years ago, and the passion gets stronger. I have made it my goal to know my ancestors as people, not just statistics. More than birth and eath date, location, marriage, etc. I am interested in what did they do for a living, why did they move, what were their beliefs, etc. I have collected pictures and am really beginning to know them.
You are right about the computer software getting better, and some of the new collaberative sites add a very nice dimension allowing other family members to contribute to your research as well. Enjoy the hobby, you will definitely gain from it.
Thanks Don. I didn't realize it was that popular. I imagine its not a hobby frequent amongst younger people, which is why it seems more rare to me.
I definitely see the lure in the more personal information in genealogy. However, before you can take that step, you at least need to know their vitals to find out more. So I'm still in the early stages. I'd like to get most of my tree back to its US immigration roots and then get more detailed from there.
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