tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7253882682634493807.post1208281454290436825..comments2023-08-18T06:44:19.080-04:00Comments on Jessica's Genejournal: Genealogy and History Thoughts - Column FourJessica's thoughtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15903978866148622833noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7253882682634493807.post-58230806518058075372007-10-15T10:55:00.000-04:002007-10-15T10:55:00.000-04:00I think I was 10 years old when my grandmother han...I think I was 10 years old when my grandmother handed me a 3-inch-thick red binder full of information about her side of the family from the time they came from England in the late 1700s. Naturally, as a teenager and a relatively nomadic adult, I lost the binder, but the bits and pieces of what I remember spending hours leafing through the pages has helped shape almost all my hunches about her genealogy. <BR/><BR/>Also, hearing the anecdotal "family facts" (being descended from Native Americans [not proven yet] and being descended from Henry VIII [again, not proven]) has spurred interest in trying to prove these. And the little family secrets (hmmm... she was already six months pregnant when she married him... I wonder how that when over in the 1920s?) always makes it more colorful than just dates and places.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7253882682634493807.post-25215757625927732632007-10-13T06:50:00.000-04:002007-10-13T06:50:00.000-04:00"How did I get involved in genealogy?"Jessica has ..."How did I get involved in genealogy?"<BR/><BR/>Jessica has posed an interesting question and one I hope several will answer and share their thoughts here. I, too, am interested in what brings others to this quest for heritage, for ancestors, and for who beget whom where and when. <BR/><BR/>Until Jessica asked the question, I don't think I've ever done any introspection to consider why I'm involved in this genealogy quest. I came to it late in life --- when I realized that my larger Thornton family knew little of their immediate past [or as I discovered later, at one time they knew; they just were not talking choosing to say, Shhhhh, let's not talk about this]. <BR/><BR/>Finding all those Yankees in the Alabama closet just sharpened my appetite for information. <BR/><BR/>But as I found the who born, who educated, who married, who died, who buried etc etc and cataloged that information, the larger issues of the regional and national history became more important than a narrow view into tracing one surname. <BR/><BR/>And the more I studied, the more I became interested in the biological, sociological, and psychological issues at play in shaping decisions in the past. This broader view of history couples well with a narrow genealogical view of one specific family to allow for those fun speculations of "Aha! This is why g-g-g-grandpa went to Texas!"<BR/><BR/>So thanks, Jessica, for posing this question of "How did I get involved in genealogy?" I think I came here looking for immediate answers to WHO AM I? and got hooked into trying to answer WHY AM I? <BR/><BR/>It has been an interesting search.<BR/>Terry Thornton<BR/>http://hillcountryofmonroecountry.blogspot.com/Terry Thorntonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01251750196282728118noreply@blogger.com