Genealogy and History Thoughts - Column Seven

Originally, I planned to write about this topic for column six, but I changed my mind.

Whenever I hear about brick walls, I hear more about people not being able to move on to the next generation, but I usually don't hear about other possible types of brick walls. Has anyone ever considered the lack of time to do research as a brick wall? I know that there has been at least one book written about how to do genealogy on a tight schedule, but other than that, I don't hear much about a tight schedule being a brick wall. I suppose it is not considered a brick wall because one can still find records to do research on his or her ancestors, but when I think about the impact of one's schedule on research, I believe a lack of time is a brick wall. Of course, brick wall might not be the best term or way to describe this problem.

For me, the lack of time hampers my ability to do research. This is what I consider my brick wall at the moment. Of course, I am in school and schoolwork comes first, but when I do have the time to do research, I usually am able to do so only during school breaks. (I realize that for those who are working at a job, that this situation applies as well.) I guess, for me, the most frustrating part of doing research is that I either don't have the time to research or go to the places where my ancestors lived. (Can you tell I'm addicted to genealogy?)

If I go somewhere to do research, I feel as though I never have enough time to look up all the records I want to, but I am sure that is the case for most of us. I guess one way to resolve this issue is to bring along another person (ie., family member) to help with the research. (Of course, there can be problems with this situation, but I won't go into that now.)

I guess I am fortunate that I have family members who are willing to help me with look for information, and thereby allow me to be able to look at more records than I would be able to on my own. So, I guess I am wondering how many times do we stop to think about and be thankful for the time that we do have for researching and for those who are willing to help us? (If I appear to be just rambling, I'm sorry. I've been having trouble, lately coming up with ideas to write about for this column.)

So what do you think? I'd love to hear what you think.