Trina Boice - Ancestry: How to Research Your Family History and Climb Your Family Tree: Genealogy tips, Honor Your Heritage, Celebrate Family (Ancestor Research, Family Tree)

Why climb your family tree?

Someone once said, If you want to have spiritual experiences, do your genealogy. There is something magical and unusually compelling about genealogy. Unlike playing golf or doing crafts or participating in any other pastime, researching our family history is something sacred that calls to us. There is a special something that tugs at the genealogists heart and pulls him to keep searching through dusty books and rolls of microfiche late into the night. You may be a professional genealogist or just a beginner trying to find a long lost cousin on the Internet. Your search may originate from curiosity, duty, or even religious dedication, but either way, you have felt that ancestral tug.

The search for ones roots became an increasingly popular hobby thanks in part to Alex Haleys Pulitzer Prize winning book Roots and the subsequent 1975 TV miniseries, which fascinated viewers as they watched the story of a family unfold from the shores of Africa to the slave plantations in America. Alex Haley explained it well when he said, In all of us there is a hunger, marrow deep, to know our heritageto know who we are and where we have come from. Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning. No matter what our attainments in this life, there is still a vacuum, an emptiness, and the most disquieting loneliness. (What Roots Means to Me, Readers Digest, May 1977). People want to know where they come from, and they want to feel like they are connected to something bigger than themselves.

As we listen to the voices whispering in the leaves of our family tree, we can hear the secrets to our own lives. They are the whispers of our ancestors who have paved the way for us. They often reveal us to ourselves. Have you ever wondered if one of your ancestors was a famous, important person? Perhaps your last name is Washington, and youve always fancied yourself as a distant relative of the heroic father of our country.

If youve shown a flair for painting or writing, maybe youve wondered if your talent is really in your genes, coming from an ancestor with a name like Da Vinci or Shakespeare. By climbing your family tree you may discover fascinating and inspiring information about your roots and even about yourself.

Genealogy (jen-ee-ahl-uh-jee) is the science or study of family lineage or ancestry. John Garland Pollard defined genealogy as tracing yourself back to people better than you are. It is as old as the Bible, which serves as the first written example of family history. Although some people think genealogy is just a dead subject, family history is the most popular hobby today in America, ranking above even traditional favorites such as football and baseball! The first day that the enormous database of worldwide family records became available on www.familysearch.org it received over one million hits, more traffic than any other website in history. Any pastime claiming to be more popular than baseball may sound almost un-American, yet family history is at the core of patriotism. A love of country and personal heritage leads to one of the most patriotic hobbies you could have: genealogy!