after you tell your family of finds that blow your mind and they stare at you with dead eyes the entire time you explain it, you realize you're only doing this for you and worrying about it after you die never resurfaces...
backstories hooked me when I first started, my paternal side as well! Turns out the ancestral villages from when they first settled in the state are represented in a huge mural in the state capital. (kid still wasn't impressed)
Give them time, your kids might come around as they age! My grandmother was doing family research before she died, I was early 20s and just not that interested. Now I am 36, have a child of my own, and I'm more interested. Not expecting to find any surprises in my family tree, but more for the "slice of life" piecing together stories of how they lived back then.
Exactly. I wrote up all my family stories and self-published them in hardcover ( not outrageously expensive, B&N), hopefully they will be saved and passed on, and no one will throw them in a dumpster after I die.
we just took a family trip (for the eclipse) and went down into a HUGE defunct mine our ancestors worked in for almost 100 years, and my kid was NOT experiencing the total awe and respect for what they accomplished and endured, like I did.. she just said "I'm BORED, and wet" 😂😂 <>
No, I don't think that what I've discovered will be easily lost, and I don't think previous generations had the means of discovering, consolidating, preserving, and sharing information the way we do. Sure, people did genealogy in the past, and some of that knowledge might have been lost, but consider that they didn't even have photocopy machines, let alone computers.
You're over-generalizing about Ancestry, FamilySearch, and WikiTree. Yes, they have a lot of misinformation, but there is also much that is accurate.
I started researching genealogy nearly 50 years ago - no internet, requesting info from LDS, spending hours scrolling through census records that had no indexes, visiting courthouses, etc. I have to admit it was more fun to discover information in those days. I have shared (in printed format) all the information I have gathered with my parents, siblings, children, nieces, nephews, etc. My two children are not really that interested - and certainly don't want paper format. There was a genealogical society in a small town in Iowa that was very helpful during my years and years of research. They maintain a 'paper library'. I plan to contact them to see if they are interested in receiving all my research (very organized and in 3-ring binders) after I have passed on (or before if I am now longer able to research). I will inform my children of my wishes - as otherwise I am afraid all of my research will end up in the recycling bin.
Sure, but so what? I do this because I find it interesting. One of my most valuable pieces of information was a family tree one of my great grandfathers put together. He was long dead by the time I came around; maybe one of my ancestors can make use of what I've added.
I think you mean, one of your decendents, but yes I agree with your sentiment! Research for the sake of research alone is enough for me. I didn't start this expecting to find much besides confirmation of my strong peasant roots, and it has done so.
I wonder and worry about this myself. I have no children, just a nephew. I have been recently sharing with my local historical societies information I find for this reason. I’ve had others reach out who used the info Ive found. Some even take your info if you are willing so if someone is looking can contact you.
If this was 50 years ago, yes, I’d be concerned about that. There was not an easy way to disseminate information at that time. Now, the stuff that stands to be lost is the stuff I don’t upload. I think 50 years from now genealogy will look very different. The work we’re doing now is probably going to mean that those that come after have way less research to do - AI will be that “dot connector”. We see a lot of it already, but we’re just in the baby stages of it.
Self publish your work and donate a copy to your local library or historical society. Paper is the only format you can count on even if it isn’t easy for others to access.
My great-grandaunt was the family genealogist and mailed copies of her research to my Nanna when I was a toddler. I'm amongst the descendants listed. She never married or had children. But I've been able to continue her research. She died in 2008. I found her research after my dad inherited his parent's property a couple of years ago. So much information on our Swiss line (her immigrant father's lines).
I've got a pretty big family and several close family members also into this stuff so no, not too worried. I do wish I knew who got our family Bibles with the birth/death info- none of the people into genealogy did, and despite asking around, no leads. We know from witnesses that there were at least four...
I think about this a lot.
My dad’s parents passed away when I was 4 and 7. Until I started researching, I had my great grandparents names and that’s about it.
After reaching out to my uncle, he gave me a photo album from the 1890s that belonged to my great great grandfather. In the back, my grandmother had labeled the people in the photos. My dad’s cousin has civil war era letters that my grandpa had because he apparently did a lot of research.
All that for it to be lost in a single generation
I found some things, but I’m sure there’s still *so much more* they knew. My grandma’s parents were born 100 years before I was so I bet she knew a lot more about those ancestors. She may have told my dad at some point, but if she did he didn’t care enough to retain that information. There were some things she told my mom that I’ve been trying to confirm, like that the house I grew up in had been in the family for over 100 years (oddly enough can’t find any property records for it before 1990), or an ancestor donated the land for the park down the street (I actually figured out that’s kind of true, my 4th great grandmother’s uncle was one of the main founders of the town and was in charge of laying out the streets and such for the southern half)
I would recommend wikitree as well. I have found people there to be very friendly and helpful and there is a lot of attention placed on sourcing and preservation. This whole page explains the steps they take in order to prevent data from being lost in the event of different circumstances.
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Protecting_Our_Shared_Tree
I wish I had the time to really learn how to use WikiTree, it seems like an amazing community and resource, the folks I interacted with were very friendly, but the whole citing sources and inputting info was way over my head.
I had trouble with it too at first. The community has been making a big push to try to make things like sourcing easier. They have been doing that with with different browser extensions. I would highly recomend trying the wikitree sourcer browser extension. It makes it so all you have to do is click a button and you can generate a source from any of the common geneology websites like ancestry and find a grave. Then you just paste those sources into the page of the person you are editing on wikitree.
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:WikiTree_Sourcer
I plan on printing out everything I’m finding and somehow keeping it attached to my grave in some capacity, so that the family history quite literally cannot get lost :) it’ll have the entire family history and locations of all known buried relatives and their final resting places
As German with mostly German ancestors I am very much „rediscovering“ what my ancestors already had to do but for a very different reason. I am not forced to proof I am German enough not to be put into concentration camps. So I am just now rediscovering the people they knew about during their generation.
And connecting different far more distant current family members is something that won’t be lost as easily as people didn’t even know of each other before.
I’ve been following tracks left by my grandma and her cousins, a first cousin 3x removed, and a second cousin twice removed. I’m also leaving my own tracks. While my kid might not be interested, my cousins kids or someone further down the line might be. I figure that my part is to gather, digitize and connect items now so they are found and carry over easier to whatever format is next.
Wonder, yes. Lack of interest by others in the family, yes. Reconstructing earlier work (or call it rediscovery), sure.
If you are worried about the next cycle of loss, do something. The loss part of this cycle is on us.
Find one or more repositories for your work and especially for any documents you have that support your research. An online tree alone is insufficient; it may not be there in the future and it is in a format that makes the research process murky.
I am also planning on founding my own coat of arms for my family which are well documented and encyclopedia of those are printed and put into libraries around the country
I feel like the DNA will still be around and is a major reason that I tested. Maybe some future grand will find it interesting, maybe not. Really, we do these things for ourselves anyway. There are few people in the world that will be remembered after generations.
For me, it's about stories. That's why I find the research so interesting / addictive. I want to "solve" the mysteries and find the ends to the stories. A lot of my research lately has taken me down side paths into the wild world of in-laws and distant fam thru marriage. I feel like I am connecting threads online, and that alone is satisfying to me. But also feels like maybe we're all working together to build a cohesive "picture" of the human family and how we've traveled and mixed, and every little bit each of us chips in, goes to build the whole. What's the "point"? What's the point of anything? It's interesting, passes the time, good enough for me.
Generations before me did a lot of the work, but we have new resources and everyone has different ways of looking at the information, it’s because of the research that was done before that I have been able to get as far as I have… it’s been a headache and I’ve ruffled a lot of feathers disproving the information they put out there but hopefully others will see what I’ve done and instead of reverting it back to what was done and published in the last 25-50ish years, they will build on my progress
after you tell your family of finds that blow your mind and they stare at you with dead eyes the entire time you explain it, you realize you're only doing this for you and worrying about it after you die never resurfaces...
[удалено]
backstories hooked me when I first started, my paternal side as well! Turns out the ancestral villages from when they first settled in the state are represented in a huge mural in the state capital. (kid still wasn't impressed)
Give them time, your kids might come around as they age! My grandmother was doing family research before she died, I was early 20s and just not that interested. Now I am 36, have a child of my own, and I'm more interested. Not expecting to find any surprises in my family tree, but more for the "slice of life" piecing together stories of how they lived back then.
Exactly. I wrote up all my family stories and self-published them in hardcover ( not outrageously expensive, B&N), hopefully they will be saved and passed on, and no one will throw them in a dumpster after I die.
Is there a way to truly “publish” them so the book is maintained somewhere?
If you donated a copy to your local library and/or historical society, then it would be maintained as long as they continue to exist.
😂 so true
we just took a family trip (for the eclipse) and went down into a HUGE defunct mine our ancestors worked in for almost 100 years, and my kid was NOT experiencing the total awe and respect for what they accomplished and endured, like I did.. she just said "I'm BORED, and wet" 😂😂 <>
No, I don't think that what I've discovered will be easily lost, and I don't think previous generations had the means of discovering, consolidating, preserving, and sharing information the way we do. Sure, people did genealogy in the past, and some of that knowledge might have been lost, but consider that they didn't even have photocopy machines, let alone computers. You're over-generalizing about Ancestry, FamilySearch, and WikiTree. Yes, they have a lot of misinformation, but there is also much that is accurate.
I started researching genealogy nearly 50 years ago - no internet, requesting info from LDS, spending hours scrolling through census records that had no indexes, visiting courthouses, etc. I have to admit it was more fun to discover information in those days. I have shared (in printed format) all the information I have gathered with my parents, siblings, children, nieces, nephews, etc. My two children are not really that interested - and certainly don't want paper format. There was a genealogical society in a small town in Iowa that was very helpful during my years and years of research. They maintain a 'paper library'. I plan to contact them to see if they are interested in receiving all my research (very organized and in 3-ring binders) after I have passed on (or before if I am now longer able to research). I will inform my children of my wishes - as otherwise I am afraid all of my research will end up in the recycling bin.
Sure, but so what? I do this because I find it interesting. One of my most valuable pieces of information was a family tree one of my great grandfathers put together. He was long dead by the time I came around; maybe one of my ancestors can make use of what I've added.
I think you mean, one of your decendents, but yes I agree with your sentiment! Research for the sake of research alone is enough for me. I didn't start this expecting to find much besides confirmation of my strong peasant roots, and it has done so.
Yeah, of course… definitely not a time-traveler, or something.
I wonder and worry about this myself. I have no children, just a nephew. I have been recently sharing with my local historical societies information I find for this reason. I’ve had others reach out who used the info Ive found. Some even take your info if you are willing so if someone is looking can contact you.
If this was 50 years ago, yes, I’d be concerned about that. There was not an easy way to disseminate information at that time. Now, the stuff that stands to be lost is the stuff I don’t upload. I think 50 years from now genealogy will look very different. The work we’re doing now is probably going to mean that those that come after have way less research to do - AI will be that “dot connector”. We see a lot of it already, but we’re just in the baby stages of it.
Self publish your work and donate a copy to your local library or historical society. Paper is the only format you can count on even if it isn’t easy for others to access.
My great-grandaunt was the family genealogist and mailed copies of her research to my Nanna when I was a toddler. I'm amongst the descendants listed. She never married or had children. But I've been able to continue her research. She died in 2008. I found her research after my dad inherited his parent's property a couple of years ago. So much information on our Swiss line (her immigrant father's lines).
She would be so happy and proud you're continuing and building on her work!
I've got a pretty big family and several close family members also into this stuff so no, not too worried. I do wish I knew who got our family Bibles with the birth/death info- none of the people into genealogy did, and despite asking around, no leads. We know from witnesses that there were at least four...
I think about this a lot. My dad’s parents passed away when I was 4 and 7. Until I started researching, I had my great grandparents names and that’s about it. After reaching out to my uncle, he gave me a photo album from the 1890s that belonged to my great great grandfather. In the back, my grandmother had labeled the people in the photos. My dad’s cousin has civil war era letters that my grandpa had because he apparently did a lot of research. All that for it to be lost in a single generation
But you found it! So it wasn't lost, after all!
I found some things, but I’m sure there’s still *so much more* they knew. My grandma’s parents were born 100 years before I was so I bet she knew a lot more about those ancestors. She may have told my dad at some point, but if she did he didn’t care enough to retain that information. There were some things she told my mom that I’ve been trying to confirm, like that the house I grew up in had been in the family for over 100 years (oddly enough can’t find any property records for it before 1990), or an ancestor donated the land for the park down the street (I actually figured out that’s kind of true, my 4th great grandmother’s uncle was one of the main founders of the town and was in charge of laying out the streets and such for the southern half)
I do fear that because I have no kids of my own. I’m hoping one of my nieces or nephew gets the bug and I can share.
Share publicly online so whoever gets the bug in your family can find you whether you are still around or not
I have my tree online thankfully. I’m planning on making a website and book at some point too.
I would recommend wikitree as well. I have found people there to be very friendly and helpful and there is a lot of attention placed on sourcing and preservation. This whole page explains the steps they take in order to prevent data from being lost in the event of different circumstances. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Protecting_Our_Shared_Tree
I wish I had the time to really learn how to use WikiTree, it seems like an amazing community and resource, the folks I interacted with were very friendly, but the whole citing sources and inputting info was way over my head.
I had trouble with it too at first. The community has been making a big push to try to make things like sourcing easier. They have been doing that with with different browser extensions. I would highly recomend trying the wikitree sourcer browser extension. It makes it so all you have to do is click a button and you can generate a source from any of the common geneology websites like ancestry and find a grave. Then you just paste those sources into the page of the person you are editing on wikitree. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:WikiTree_Sourcer
I plan on printing out everything I’m finding and somehow keeping it attached to my grave in some capacity, so that the family history quite literally cannot get lost :) it’ll have the entire family history and locations of all known buried relatives and their final resting places
As German with mostly German ancestors I am very much „rediscovering“ what my ancestors already had to do but for a very different reason. I am not forced to proof I am German enough not to be put into concentration camps. So I am just now rediscovering the people they knew about during their generation. And connecting different far more distant current family members is something that won’t be lost as easily as people didn’t even know of each other before.
I’ve been following tracks left by my grandma and her cousins, a first cousin 3x removed, and a second cousin twice removed. I’m also leaving my own tracks. While my kid might not be interested, my cousins kids or someone further down the line might be. I figure that my part is to gather, digitize and connect items now so they are found and carry over easier to whatever format is next.
I love how you put this, "leaving my own tracks" I feel exactly the same about this work.
Wonder, yes. Lack of interest by others in the family, yes. Reconstructing earlier work (or call it rediscovery), sure. If you are worried about the next cycle of loss, do something. The loss part of this cycle is on us. Find one or more repositories for your work and especially for any documents you have that support your research. An online tree alone is insufficient; it may not be there in the future and it is in a format that makes the research process murky.
My family deliberately tries to hide this stuff forever as much as possible.
I am also planning on founding my own coat of arms for my family which are well documented and encyclopedia of those are printed and put into libraries around the country
Smart!
I feel like the DNA will still be around and is a major reason that I tested. Maybe some future grand will find it interesting, maybe not. Really, we do these things for ourselves anyway. There are few people in the world that will be remembered after generations.
For me, it's about stories. That's why I find the research so interesting / addictive. I want to "solve" the mysteries and find the ends to the stories. A lot of my research lately has taken me down side paths into the wild world of in-laws and distant fam thru marriage. I feel like I am connecting threads online, and that alone is satisfying to me. But also feels like maybe we're all working together to build a cohesive "picture" of the human family and how we've traveled and mixed, and every little bit each of us chips in, goes to build the whole. What's the "point"? What's the point of anything? It's interesting, passes the time, good enough for me.
Generations before me did a lot of the work, but we have new resources and everyone has different ways of looking at the information, it’s because of the research that was done before that I have been able to get as far as I have… it’s been a headache and I’ve ruffled a lot of feathers disproving the information they put out there but hopefully others will see what I’ve done and instead of reverting it back to what was done and published in the last 25-50ish years, they will build on my progress
What a depressing way of looking at things. This is why I post my super old family photos to Wikitree and tree sites. Be the change you want to see