Think there's nothing to find in your family history? Think again. There are fascinating people, events and facts to find in EVERY family tree.
As a family researcher I've heard every excuse as to why people don't do their family research. "You won't find anything" "There's nothing interesting to uncover" "My family is just boring" I'm always so shocked to hear these responses because every single family tree I've researched had a surprise or shocking element that the client had no idea existed. Often many interesting people pop up and the stories they "tell" are amazing. Some have historical significance or some have a story that relates to the current family member. One example is a client that learned her ancestor not only fought in the Civil War but was a prisoner in the infamous Andersonville prison camp in Georgia. What made this more interesting is that he was also in prison 20 years later in a well known prison that took very detailed information at the time of entry. This included a blue tattoo with numbers that we've concluded could have been from his time at Andersonville. It's these types of records that bring historical events to life and give us more information like the tattoo. "Finding evidence of an Andersonville survivor is rare" Some interesting facts that are learned are much more personal and not really associated to a historical event. Case in point of one ancestor that was listed in military rolls as a musician in the Revolutionary War. This being of personal interest to the current day client who was also a musician into an immediate family of non-musicians. This "connection" brings ancestors to life and certainly in a more personal way. "Finding an unusual craft or profession that links you to the past" Don't ever disregard family research as a waste of time just because you either think you already know all the facts or you think there's nothing to find. I have found in my own personal history that my Grandfather had an older brother who passed away as an infant that no one ever knew about. When we start digging deeper into the facts surrounding individuals it's amazing how the pieces come together like a large puzzle. And now when we can connect on a DNA level, we can find missing facts or clues that bring more history to life.
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AuthorTeri Patterson writes on all things pertaining to history. Many blog posts are references to family tree information Archives
July 2020
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