Coloring the Pictures of our Ancestors' Lives
I began working for a mortgage company several months
ago. Each day I work with many names and
loan numbers. Occasionally I will notice
on the deed the words, “husband and wife as joint tenants,” or I will notice
the place of employment on the “Verification of Employment” form. Sometimes, I will even notice the pictures on
the appraisal, but I don’t know these people and I don’t know their story; I
work with their name and loan numbers.
One day at work, I realized that is how some people do
genealogy; names and dates. Some
researchers will search for a name, birth, marriage and death dates and then
move onto the next ancestor. However,
for me, I enjoy the search AND
learning the story. I am thrilled to
learn everything about the ancestor whose name and dates I find. I collect everything I can find about the
selected ancestor and I look everywhere for records, documents and stories. I analyze the information I find and
formulate a story about the person; thus I get to know and understand my
ancestor. I enjoy “coloring” the pictures
of my ancestors through researching and interpreting their lives.
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