Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Why I Add All Of My Research To My Ancestry Member Tree

Some readers and colleagues have asked why I have combined all of my Seaver and Leland genealogical research into one RootsMagic database, and have a public Ancestry Member Tree of that database (at least as of July 2014) online.

My answer is simple - I want to share my genealogical research, help other researchers with their work, and perhaps lead people to do their own family history research.

I had an Ancestry.com message this week from someone who, after finding a person on my Ancestry Member Tree, asked:

"I would very much like to get in touch with the direct lineage from this family. Is his son Maurice Elmer Seaver born: 1928 family doing genealogy work. "

Here is the profile for Maurice Elmer Seaver (1887-1959) from my Ancestry Member Tree:




I provided more information, including an obituary for Maurice Elmer Seaver (1887-1959), and heard back:

" I have a picture of Maurice E. Seaver, Senior. I bought it at an antique store.   I so want to find the family so that I can give it to them. Your help is very much appreciated! I will keep searching for them." 

Isn't that cool.  My Ancestry Member Tree may reunite a photograph of a grandfather or great-grandfather with one or more families who may not have ever known him.  

Little things like this mean a lot to many of us.  You never know what those family members will do with it - it may spark an interest in their ancestry and family history.  I hope so - I have a lot of Seaver material for them!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/10/why-i-add-all-of-my-research-to-my.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver


5 comments:

John Boggess said...

I was contacted a couple weeks ago by someone who knew that a woman in my Ancestry family tree had died in a state home in 1938 but her cremains had never been claimed. Family members in that branch are in the process of rectifying this nearly 80 tears later. You never know where posting extended family members online may lead.

Anonymous said...

While I know there are some valid reasons why people may choose to keep their genealogy research private, I've found that I have gotten much further in learning about my family history through sharing what I have. Many times now I've been pleasantly surprised by someone contacting me through my website, or through my Ancestry member tree, with information that I likely never would have come across otherwise. The person contacting you about the photo is a ngreat example of this.

Fax said...

Bravo! I've done this for years, and it's been very rewarding for myself and others.

Linda Stufflebean said...

Excellent post that should be read by those who don't want to share. I've featured this in my "Recommended Reads" today on www.emptybranchesonthefamilytree.com.

Unknown said...

Hi Randy,

Very nice! Hopefully you'll be able to reunite that photo with a descendant.

We've featured your story in this week's "What We Are Reading" column on the Ancestry blog: http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2014/10/03/what-we-are-reading-october-3rd-edition/

Cheers,
Amy