lindaFTC on Family Tree Circles

By knowing some of your family history, you can appreciation the struggles, sacrifices, hardships, joys and achievements of those family members who came before you. Everyone may know through history courses of epidemics, wars, natural disasters in certain regions or locations, but not until you are aware of a real person, like a great grandfather, who experienced firsthand such events, do you truly value and better understand that history.

History is not just events, but rather the people who shape that history. What ones? ancestors did in their contributions may not have been high-profiled or made them famous, but just knowing they adapted and survived a life-time of historical moments can help us in the 21st century manage our own trials and tribulations, such as the tragedies of September 11th.

With DNA and genetic research, knowing one?s medical family history becomes essential. There is a high genetic factor with heart disease, stroke, cancers, diabetes, alcoholism, high cholesterol, kidney disease, glaucoma, high blood pressure and Alzheimer?s disease, just to name a few. One would need to see if there were patterns in family branches, for instance, all the males who died of heart disease, especially if they also smoked cigarettes and drank alcohol. The illnesses your ancestors suffered from and / or died from is vital for a complete medical history. Knowing when a relative had a certain disease, young, middle or old age, makes a difference. Adding the age at which they died is a big factor. Any information on ethnic background or race rounds out the medical history. Collect information also on uncles, aunts and cousins.

It is recommended having as much information for at least three generations for a thorough medical history. A selection of sources include: death certificates, obituaries, locating stored personal medical paperwork held by family members, talking with living relatives and seeing if the doctors who treated a relative have records.

By providing collected family medical history facts to doctors, you can make knowledgeable decisions for your own health care. Having the information, especially of certain health conditions for a line of ancestors, can help an individual improve their present-day lifestyle, eating healthier foods, not smoking and being more physically activity, etc.

Each day a person looks in a mirror and they may wonder if they look similar to anyone in their family. These would be inherited traits; such as eye color, hair color, curly hair, dimples, physical size, facial features, physical strength, even an aptitude for mathematics. Included would be inherited abilities or personality. Could it be that an ancestor was very much like your mother or a sister; whether that might include being an extrovert, a daredevil, exceptionally shy, a singer, a writer or a romantic carefree soul?

Your life today, as you know it has been greatly influenced by one?s heritage, their background. To view the journey our ancestors traveled, whether it was 30 years ago or 200, can be a great influence on your thinking today. Most people have relatives who moved from their traditional homeland to a new area. People moved within different sections of Europe, especially if national boundary lines were changed. Immerse immigration from Europe and other regions to new uncharted lands like Canada, South America, Australia and America can be figured in most people?s family trees. Opening one?s eyes to what really happened, when and where some ancestors chose to leave the homeland can offer you greater awareness of their determination. Discovering your roots can definitely give a person a stronger foundation for their present-day life.

By providing a legacy for future generations, especially if such a legacy had already been carried on by earlier relatives, can certainly be important to an individual today. There may be a collection of family documents, diaries, journals, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, receipts, papers, photos, etc. handed down through the generations. Keeping that tradition going and available to the next generations maintain that ancestral unity together.

Those individuals who were adopted, may feel a need even beyond medical reasons to know their birth family?s history. Seeking information on birth parents with its confidentiality and legal paperwork in itself can be a huge challenging task. However, the rewards for those adopted children who choose to find information on birth parents is just as important as any one else interested in genealogy. Each has a goal to satisfied their own curiosity in appearances, characteristics and personalities of their ancestors.

Genealogy can be an exciting, fulfilling and interesting hobby. Solving countless mysteries, putting certain pieces of an individual?s life together, just like a puzzle can be such a thrilling pastime.

Connection with the past is an interesting aspect of genealogy. It can be seen in locating a grandfather?s signature on a piece of paper, seeing a photo of your great grandparents, having a personal item of an ancestor and wanting to know more about that individual (where and when they lived, how long they were married). Visiting the town or a village or a neighborhood where your family lived for decades provides a sense of walking in their footsteps.

Assisting other researchers in their quest offers very personal satisfaction. Once you have had some experience gathering records and creating your own family tree, it is an excellent opportunity to share the facts you have collected. There can be distant cousins you are not aware of, who are also looking for their family branches. Linking up through various genealogical Internet sites will open new doors of information and a possible link with other family members.

As the old sayings suggest; ?Never forgotten, always remembered? and ?If you?re remembered, you live on forever.?

There are many reasons why an individual begins a family history search. The basic purpose behind any search is for an account of the descent of a person and their family to gain an understanding of where you came from, what achievements, hardships, adversities and struggles the family members before you had to deal with.

For most people it is a full-time or part-time hobby to be enjoyed. The thrill of the search can be so intriguing. It becomes a mystery that needs solving, like putting all the pieces of a puzzle together.

You may feel your family has such a compelling story it needs to be written out and published, not just for family members but for others to enjoy. Perhaps old family legends exist you have heard for years and you would like to learn the truth. A reminder, just because ?grandma? told the story a certain way, doesn?t mean it is what actually happened. So learning the truth or setting the record straight for future generations can be a goal.

Doing the research yourself is very fulfilling. There will be days when you locate nothing and others when suddenly everything falls into place. Most important is to be careful in your investigation and collecting of information. The potential for data errors exists. Especially major mistakes in recording months, days or years for events. A woman born in 1802 and who lived to 1889 and yet you have recorded her giving birth to a child in 1879 ? very unlikely. A clear error and one if not caught may be passed on to others who overlook it.

When reviewing information you have assembled, if something appears confusing or misleading that data has to be verified. If something was gathered from an online submitted tree, it is only as reliable as the person who submitted it. Be like the professional and check and recheck your findings.

The best way to start and then continue on your research is by working from the present time and going back in time. It helps keep you on track and not off onto the wrong branch.

There will be many brick walls along the way ? that barrier of a name, a date or a location you just can?t seem to find. Every seasoned family history researcher has numerous brick walls but then most people do break through various brick walls. It offers that moment of shear joy when an elusive ancestor is finally discovered.

A question arises if a paid professional genealogist can in reality be more accurate than one doing the research as a hobby. First, records (birth, marriage, divorce, death, census, military, property, church, newspaper articles, city directories, social security application, etc.) are primary and secondary records no matter who locates them. Over the decades thousands of records have been preserved that speak volumes of an ancestor?s life.

There are a plentiful and growing supply of free sources either from libraries, genealogical societies, online databases or local, state and federal governmental agencies. These free sources are open to anyone. However, errors can still exist when such document transcriptions are done by professionals or volunteers. The professional researcher might more readily spot such errors.

If an individual has the time and patience to do the research themselves and be absolutely methodical, their results can be as accurate as any professional researcher or personal historian. Where a professional has an advantage is in their traveling to counties, cemeteries, courthouses, etc. to read first-hand the records, books and documents not found on Internet databases or easily copied by a clerk to be mailed to you.

A professional will also have the experience to know where to look and what to look for in far less time than an amateur. Having a ready fee-based collection of databases from which to investigate is an essential component for a professional, something that an individual on their own might not be interested pursuing.

So an accurate family history can most assuredly be achieved by any individual. The person has to know how much time and effort they are willing to put into the pursuit. If time is limited and they would like the data for an upcoming family event, the professional would be the best approach. The most important key element in a do-it-yourself family history project is to be careful and through, be willing to check and recheck your information to achieve a veracious family account.