It's Saturday Night -
1) What Excites You About Genealogy Research? What part of performing genealogy and family history research really excites you - what keeps you coming back day after day?
2) Write your own blog post, or add your response as a comment to this blog post, in a Facebook Status post or note.
Here's mine:
For me, the "Thrill of the Hunt" keeps me going day after day. I always have some record to find, or some mystery to solve, or a goal to achieve. It may be:
* Adding information from Record Hints and adding source citations to my family tree (because they may lead to more records),
* Solving another DNA match puzzle by finding a common ancestor (because that may uncover more cousins over time),
* Transcribing probate and land records (because it may reveal more family member relationships),
* Writing ancestor biographies (because it's documenting my research),
* Researching for the parents of an end of a line ancestor (because it will extend my ancestry back another generation),
* Helping some one else solve a thorny genealogy mystery (because it's helping someone else do more research),
* Adding family information to Ancestry Member Tree and FamilySearch Family Tree (because it may help someone else extend their research),
* Solving a "why did they do that?" mystery (because I want my research to be as complete as possible),
* Documenting genealogy activities (my own, other geneabloggers, and the industry),
* And many more reasons, I think.
In doing all these things, I am a detective, a snoop, a chronicler, a documenter. It keeps me fresh day to day and year to year. I love documenting my ancestry (and that of my wife and my grandchildren) with blog posts like 52 Ancestors, Amanuensis Monday, Treasure Chest Thursday, Census Sunday, Seavers in the News, etc. I love documenting industry news, new/updated record collections and education opportunities with blog posts like Wordless Wednesday, Rabbit Holes With Randy, Genealogy Potpourri, Best of the Genea-Blogs, Genealogy News and Education Bytes.
Every day brings a new challenge, and often brings a new research discovery. Or it brings a new perspective on a research topic or a research technique. It is my idea of Genealogy Fun!
Researching and writing about genealogy keeps me relatively sane and off of social media and watching TV, but I try to make time to stay informed and to root for my San Diego Padres and former San Diego Chargers.
