Have you written about how genealogy has impacted you, what it has taught you, and perhaps even how it has changed you?
I’m not talking about the few words you learned in a foreign language, how you learned to make research logs, or what you know about the FAN method. Those are helpful things in your genealogy research, but I’m thinking about more impactful things.
I used to joke that what I learned about my ggg-grandfather dying in 1855 was not to load your shotgun while drunk and think it was smart to hit a cow with the butt of said shotgun. Then I got a little more sophisticated and thought about what it meant for his widow and two small girls (both 5 and under) to be in a place where they had no kin to help them out after his death.
Then I thought about my one grandmother who had strained relationships with several family members and what my relationship with her was like. It’s personal, so I won’t go into it here…but there’s several things from it I have learned–things to emulate, things to not, and things to cut her some slack about. I’ve written about it in things for my descendants.
I’ve written other life lessons from my parents, other grandparents, and the great-grandmother I knew. The amount varies for obvious reasons.
Then I extrapolated it to things I’d learned from the relatives I have researched, but have never met. I’m a big believer in genealogy being an active pursuit–not physically active, but one where you think about what you discover and find–and not just so you can reach conclusions and find more, but so that you can maybe take a lesson or reminder from it.
But seriously, do not hit a cow with the butt of a loaded gun.
He may have been drinking at the same time, but that’s speculation on my part.
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