Why Do Genealogy? Really? You Have To Ask?

My last post concerned the Boomer folks and their work ethic... and their approach to doing genealogy, as a passion. (See below and Mr. Tanner's post on this subject.) One more thought: for many Boomers, work was mostly fun, if they did it right. There was a philosophy of work (and remember here that I worked in high-tech industries) that posed that if you didn't look forward to Monday morning, you really needed to look for a new job. Or start your own business.

I look at folks like Joel Weintraub (no relation that we know of) and Steve Morse who had passionate careers and then applied what they knew and loved to genealogy and are still hotly pursuing it. It's not that they were full time professional genealogists all their working lives. So there you have my thoughts to round out the previous post.

And here's a final thought on my own reasons for hotly pursuing genealogy. It's fascinating!! I can't wait to get back to my computer or open the mail or go to the Center and see what other information is out there waiting for me to find! My ancestors were all kinds of interesting!! And I bet yours were too:)

I don't have kids or grands so I'm not doing it for them. I'm doing it for me. But if I find out something that fills out the picture and story of my ancestor's lives, I can't wait to share it with others. But it's mostly for me:) So if it's for me why wouldn't I work as hard and as well as I possibly can at it?

It's funny, but after you retire people see you as this retired person and that's all. Very few think to inquire what kind of work you did. That's especially true for women. And that's enough about that.


Picture of the day from my Archive:

Clonmacnoise Ireland, a monastic site since 548,

on the Shannon River.

My Kelly ancestors came from

near here at Shannonbridge.

Photo taken on our trip in 1986.

Want to know more about this Irish Historic Site? Go to:
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/ireland/clonmacnoise 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/03/why-do-genealogy-really.html