Genealogy Should Come With a Warning Label!

 

It should read “Warning! Begin Genealogy at your own risk!”

Collecting dead relatives, also known as doing genealogy, can be addictive to some individuals.

You’ll find yourself bugging older family members about even older family members.

You’ll find yourself sitting in front of the computer at 2 a.m. in raggedy jammies just trying to find one more piece of your genealogy puzzle.

You’ll spend hours tramping through overgrown cemeteries, grass shears in one hand, a camera in the other, and an eye out for snakes while you look for an ancestor’s last resting place.

You’ll learn a new “language.”

You won’t just talk about group sheets, pedigree charts, census records, and family “lines,” you’ll know what they are and how to use them.

You‘ll become BFF’s with genealogy librarians, and if the data you need is on microfilm that isn’t digitized yet, you’ll get dizzy from watching microfilm speed past your eyes.

You’ll know the closing times of all area courthouses, and learn how to speak “legalese’ both in this century and centuries past.

If you’re lucky, you may find that your ancestors were a fascinating part of history, soldiers, sailors, town founders, or maybe even royalty.

But for some, learning that their ancestors were less than perfect, horse thieves or pirates, bank robbers or ne’er-do-well bad guys, is devastating.

One researcher found a woman in the 1800’s who left her first husband, married the second, then left him, and spent the next few years of her life dodging both her exes while never getting a divorce.

From either one.

In the early days of our country it wasn’t all that uncommon for folks to just move away and remarry, without bothering to dissolve the first marriage.

A Wichita woman didn’t know, until she read her ancestress’s name in a Wichita Eagle article, that her ancestor, Rebecca Nurse, was hung during the Salem witch trials. (Of course, Rebecca Nurse was likely no more a witch than were her accusers.)

In fact, type “black sheep ancestors” into Google and you will find websites dedicated to ‘black sheep’ societies, and other websites dedicated to helping you locate your criminal ancestor!

So be forewarned.

Genealogy is not only a fun, interesting, and very addictive hobby, the results can be mixed!