Sunday, March 12, 2017

Go deep or go long?

I have been away for a couple of weeks while one of my daughters gave birth to a new granddaughter, another leaf on my family tree! There were some issues, though not medical, really. This was not her first child and normally, the 'due date' is fairly accurate, usually within a day or two or three. Obstetrical science has progressed, the technology is marvelous, and the science behind it amazing. Yet it remains a huge unknown; Mother Nature and a woman's body are the final determinants as to when birth will occur, not medical know-how.

In my daughter's case, that meant my leaving her house after a 10-day stay without having had the opportunity to hold my new granddaughter after birth.

It also meant I missed the birth by 24 hours! Twenty. Four. Hours.

Ah, if only...

But 'if only' does not count, so now I am back home and at this family search business, which I have worked on for a couple of years.

I have enjoyed my activities immensely. I have learned many things about my ancestors going back several generations. I have learned things about my immediate grandparents that completely shocked me and changed the preconceived memories I have always had about their pasts. I have learned things about where they came from in England - eventually, I hope to get to Ireland, too, but that will have to wait because validated facts about my Irish ancestry are in very short supply.

In short, I have learned some of the Who, Where, When about some of the people in my past I either did not know well (because I was brought up a Third Culture Kid overseas, the son of a US diplomat) or did not know at all (because of their deaths.) I have been contacted by and am in touch with the only cousin I know about, a second cousin who remembers me and my family from my childhood. I still can barely explain the excitement I feel just knowing her, even though I have no memory of us ever meeting.

Those factors, combined with my insatiable curiosity and drive to fill in the blanks - chasms, really -  in my past, have led me to wonder more about the What and Why parts of my ancestors' pasts. What made my ancestors do what they did? Why did they do what they did (beyond the 'improve life for us' immigration issue.) What did they do when they were there, wherever that was? What was going on in their neighborhood, town, state, country, at the time? What did they have to do with the adults of some children whose names I recall from my pre-Middle East life?

The pressing question now is:

Should I continue "going long," meaning going farther and farther back into my past? I will fill out my family tree with names, dates, and places. But that is pretty much all I will be doing...filling in those chasms. I would not know much about the individuals belonging to those names.

Or do I change tack slightly and start "going deep," meaning do I spend more time, energy, and probably money going deeper into the individuals that I already know?

To me, that is akin to putting more leaves on my family tree - as my daughter has just done with the birth of my granddaughter, Charlotte - instead of focusing on adding branches in faraway places like Ireland.

I need your help, dear readers, of all kinds. I do not want to become a semi-professional genealogist; I am still doing this for me, but I am also aware enough of my own personality to know that I will never be able to stop; I never have enough information.

I would like the input of friends, family, the genealogists, professional or not, who have been doing this much longer than me and really anyone reading who might have greater insight into the Who, What, Where, When, and Why, factors involved in climbing up ones family tree.

So let me know. Write a comment. Send me an email. Find a carrier pigeon. Use a smoke signal or semaphore, though, honestly, they probably will not work very well.

Let me hear from you!

11 comments:

  1. Do a combination. Take the info as it comes. I have several of my ancestors back in the 1600-1700's that I know more about than some from the early 1900's. I take note of everything i can tie in and then try to make sence of it. For example a few days ago I got into some historical notes from one of the towns my family came from. I made a search on my ancestors surname, and it came up several times with tidbits about him and his business. New pieces to the historical puzzle.
    Being a professional genealogist I get into many different kinds of records, so I never know what to expect. In one record I found an account about a brother of one of my ancestors from the early part of the 1700's who was at a function and dinner at the royal castle. A servant tripped and a pot of sauce went flying and landed on my ? x great uncle so his fine clothing needed to be cleaned. They litterally had to take his fine clothing ,made of different materials apart, clean these piecees individually and then sow them back together. In interesting tidbit to add to the history of my famiy. Kim Melchior

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    1. Thank you for your comments, Kim. I take what the pros say very seriously. Even though I have no intention of becoming one, I try to approach my work a seriously as I can. Your insight is valuable.

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  2. This is a long term project. I would suggest going as deep as you can with each person you discover. Find their story. Find their siblings. Find their occupations. Find the locales. Find the friends and neighbors. Believe me, the roots will happen automatically ( the length) if you do all this.

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    1. As always, Heather, your input strikes home. Going deep with each person I find sounds exactly like what I want to do. One can never know enough about ones own family.

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  3. I say do both. Either one at a time or at the same time, but from the sound of it, your curiosity will not be satiated by doing only half the research. Besides, inevitably you will find information that will make you want to look deeper or that will give you cause to add more names to add to your tree. Happy hunting! Can't wait to see more from you!

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    1. Doing them both is probably what I have been doing. I know more about some of my ancestors than others, and I know more about certain branches of my tree than others. Thank you for your input.

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  4. I prefer learning as much as i can about each ancestor and use contextual history to understand the time and locations where they lived. The stories intrigue me. I add to the tree in the process when i learn about additional ancestors using the FAN principle.

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    1. Thank you for the thought, Kendra. Learning about each of my ancestors gives me greater insight into what was going on in their neighborhoods at the time. I have already been able to fill out some of those niggling memory shreds we probably all have. Your words mean a lot.

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  5. I understand and appreciate the question: to go long or deep. When I first started dabbling in genealogy I was admittedly focused on names and dates. But I quickly realized the stories that were available at my finger tips provided more substance to those names and dates I was collecting, and made for a more meaning-filled hobby. Good luck with your continued research and congrats on your new granddaughter!

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  6. A bit of both I guess. Digging into past is so addictive. I spent last week going through some old immigration archives to find my ancestors that escaped to US. I always try to find something about each person from the tree, who he or she was, what they were known for to be able to imagine them. The funny thing is the only thing I found on my great grandfather was some newspaper article mentioning that taxi (horse taxi at the time) lost him as he was so drunk that he fell out.

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    1. I knew 'digging into the past' would be addictive when I started this journey to know more about the names in my past and to learn something about the names I have never heard. Trying to "imagine them," as you do, is what this is really all about for me. Thank you for your input, Margot.

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