A Year of Blogging: December 23, 2011

December 23 was 'Roots' day. It's the day to explore your genealogy. Your roots. It may seem like an odd time to celebrate it, but really, it makes sense. Families are gathering for Christmas. There will be time spent sitting around the table talking. Or maybe your family sits in the family room or game room and chats. If you're surrounded by relatives, it's a good time to get some of those family stories. In case this seems overwhelming, just ask your parents to tell you about Christmas when they were children. What were their traditions, who made dinner, things like that. You might find as they start talking that one story leads to another. And I would bet you will learn something you didn't know about your family. Granted, it might be a story you don't want to tell outside of the family... I have been actively researching my family history for more than five years. I don't know that I'll ever have answers to all my questions. Sometimes it seems the further I dig, the more questions I have. My biggest regret is that on some sides of the family, my best resources (relatives) are gone. I even sat down with my grandparents and asked questions. I knew quite a bit, but there are still puzzles. Genealogy is one of my many hobbies. Sometimes I joke that my hobbies could be a full time job. Genealogy could be one full time job, and my other hobbies could be another. But it is really quite interesting. I like finding new cousins. It was neat to find out that I was related to all the old blood in both my hometown and my Dad's. It seems every time I work on the genealogy I find another tidbit of wonderful information. I will caution you though, in the same way that my Aunt cautioned me. Be careful when you dig- you might find some interesting characters. The actual warning was that I might find horse thieves. Which I did. No one mentioned that I'd find the Democrat though!