Ok, I’m having withdrawal. After five solid days of hanging out on GenealogyWise.com, the new social networking site for genealogists, it has been down this morning for at kleast four hours. At least I HOPE it’s down, because I had finally found a social networking home. I never could get into facebook,  nd I use twitter to keep up on politics and current events. But GenealogyWise was fast becoming my home. I had made many groups, and was especially loving my “Scrap Your family History” group, one very close to my heart as you can imagine.

As of when the site went down I had about 82 members in the group, and it has really lit a fire under me to get out the ole PSP program and dust it off, because these people are chomping at the bit to learn. Now it’s down and I’m totally at loose ends. Hopefully it’s just a technical problem, what with so many hundreds flocking to it every day. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I have wondered many times what it is about genealogy research that is so appealing to me. It’s more than just knowing the names of ancestors, more even than finding out their individual stories. There’s something in the thrill of the hunt, of piecing together all the pieces, reading between lines, following the slightest clue and having it pan out, and the elation that follows when your search is finally culminated and your answer is found.

Except that every answer only open new doors, new mysteries, new clues, and the search begins all over again. So I think, for me at least, the thrill is in the solving of a mystery.

All my life I have I have been an avid reader of mystery stories. I watch all the mystery shows on TV. I’ve also done puzzles all my life too, and not crosswords that require you to just have a knowledge of words, but the ones that make you think and reason to get to the answer. And I always had a secret desire to be a detective, one of those daydreams you have when no one’s looking.

Doing family history research fulfills all those cravings for me. I get to gather the facts, make assumptions, track down the proof or evidence to the contrary, and keep going till I work it all out and finally arrive at the culprit, er, uh, the ancestor! What better way could there possibly be to spend my days?

My Non-Surname GenealogyWise Groups:
Scrap Your Family History”
Pilgrim Era Discussion”

My Website:
GenScraps

My Articles Online:
Associated Content
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Genealogy Vs Family History – Giving Your Ancestors Life – Researching Siblings Part 1 of a Series

When doing genealogy, researching siblings can lead you to information about your ancestors that you might not be able to find otherwise.

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