Why is family history work so engaging?
I knew it from the first time I watched it in action — this was something important. During my college days a friend from high school let me watch as she researched an ancestor. Although my parents had genealogy books at home that were filled with notes, pictures and trees, this was the first time I’d watched someone in action. It was enthralling. She was searching for an ancestor on some microfiche — I don’t remember the details now. But, I remember distinctly the feeling I had when she found what she was looking for: a trace from her past — it represented someone real. I still thrill at the moment, even all these many years later, even though there have been many experiences of my own since that first vicarious success.
What is it about family history that’s so addicting? Is it the thrill of the hunt? Is it the connection to the past? Is it the way it fills in our understanding of ourselves? Maybe the answers are “yes,” “yes,” and “yes.” It’s an individual answer. For most, it’s just a feeling that keeps us looking to know more.
Here’s a short story a new friend of mine recently wrote me about. I use it with permission. Kathileen says, “I have always loved hot air balloons, and now I know why . . . in my research, I found that a gg(++) grandfather on the other side of my family invented them - in France! Jean Pierre was the 1st person to fly a hot air balloon in the States - He flew for President Washington in the 1700’s.”
So, what’s your story? What is it that keeps you working on your family history? I’d love to hear about your successes! Please log a comment, below.
Previous Articles
Saved indicator and trees person card
Something new for those of you who store your trees on the site while you are searching: person card and saved indicator.
If you look at this snippet from a search for my great uncle Ashby:
You’ll notice the green check next to records you’ve already saved to that person, which I truly love. If you have […]
Heartfelt gifts that you can make in an hour or less
I’ve always had a hard time buying presents for my dad. Apparently I’m not alone, because last night one of my sisters called me to beg for ideas. “Yeah, good luck with that,” I said, explaining that for once I had a great gift in mind for Dad: a framed family history poster that he […]
Trees Service will be down tonight
Our trees service will be unavailable early tomorrow morning for (we hope!) about 30 minutes starting around 1:30 AM mountain time.
We apologize for this downtime, but hope you take comfort knowing it should result in better performance for the more than 13 million photos you and other members have submitted.
This tree service downtime will affect […]
First World Archives Project Record Collection Complete
Ancestry.com is excited to announce the completion of the first record collection indexed through the World Archives Project, its new community indexing program. Community contributors participating in the project indexed the nearly 60,000 records within the Wisconsin Mortality Schedules, 1850 - 1880. The Wisconsin Mortality Schedules collection was completed in the three months following the […]
New U.S. City Directories Database
Tuesday we released the new U.S. City Directories database on Ancestry.com. While we’ve had thousands of city directories on the site for some years now, many of these databases contain no page images, and the ones that do mostly contain bi-tonal black and white images (not grayscale).
This new release adds tremendous value to our U.S. […]
See the people in your tree on a map
Ancestry.com now helps you visualize where important events occurred in the lives of your ancestors by placing their events on a map.
How do I use it?
We’ve updated the family tree so that just about anywhere we show a place, you can click on that place and see the link on the map. When we display […]
Thank you for joining us!
To the people who joined us for this evening’s webinar, thank you! We enjoyed having the opportunity to answer some of your questions. If you didn’t have a chance to join us live, the webinar will be available in a few days at http://www.familytreemaker.com/About/Webinars.aspx
As a follow-up, I’d like to clarify something I mentioned in the […]
Share family memories all year long with custom photo calendars
My sister Christel has never been comfortable using a computer. An experienced pediatric nurse, she works in the neonatal intensive care unit of a hospital that handles the toughest cases in a five-state region. She can resuscitate a two-pound preemie without breaking a sweat, but she doesn’t know how to use Google. Occasionally she calls […]
Getting Help
Many resources are available to help you effectively use Family Tree Maker 2009. Here are some commonly asked questions and their answers.
Q. I’m new to Family Tree Maker. How do I get started?
Here are some options for becoming acquainted with Family Tree Maker 2009.
Option 1: The Family Tree Maker Getting Started Guide is a great […]
Welcome to the Ancestry Blog!
Here you will find informational, and sometimes fun, posts from the folks behind the scenes here at Ancestry. We hope you’ll notice just how passionate we are about family history and about the products we're building to help connect families over distance and time.
