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For you who always put off your desire to start your genealogy, here are 5 good reasons to begin. Warning, it's an addictive passion...
Some time ago we shared with you the 5 golden rules of genealogy, but before following these rules, you still need to get started!
Many are discouraged in advance: "Genealogy is time-consuming, I will never have the time" or "Genealogy is complicated, I don't know where to start". Well... yes and no.
Yes, genealogy takes time, but it's a hobby, a pastime, and when you love it, you don't count. Many tools are designed to help you save time in your research and in building your family tree.
Yes, genealogy can sometimes be complicated. But most often, starting with your close ancestors is simple, online archives help even more. And if a branch quickly becomes a dead end, see it as a challenge, an investigation to solve, no doubt that this will ignite your passion.
I feel that not much is missing to convince you to dedicate some of your time to your genealogy, so here are 5 good reasons to get started:
What an adventure! A dive into the past to discover, understand and tame your roots. Many will tell you, starting your genealogy is "knowing where you come from to know where you're going". Genealogy and finding your roots help to understand who you are, sometimes to build yourself. Discovering your ancestors is also bringing them back to life, by putting names, first names, dates and life stories on the leaves of our family tree...
Doing your genealogy, beyond collecting ancestors, is also diving into their daily lives. By finding family memories and following the traces of your ancestors, there's no doubt you'll quickly be led to draw parallels with History (with a capital H!). Why did several ancestors die at the same time? How did they live during the war? What jobs did they do depending on their places of life? All these questions are correlated with History. Our ancestors played a role, near or far, in History, it's up to you to discover which one.
This is what I prefer in genealogy, and I'm not the only one! Genealogy is the best way to debunk family legends but also to solve investigations gently left by our ancestors. You will search, snoop, read, reread, deduce and satisfy your curiosity by delving into your genealogy. And what a pride to finally find the solution, unlock a dead end, solve a genealogical investigation!
There is a genealogist in every family. A distant uncle, a knowledgeable cousin, a passionate grandmother... resourceful people who spend long hours building the family history. You could be that person! Doing your genealogy and sharing it is bridging the gap between generations and reconnecting with some family members. A valuable mission of enhancing the family heritage.
Another good reason to get started! Whether it's to reconnect with cousins or ancestors with unusual stories, genealogy has its reasons that the heart... does not ignore! We love the idea of being able to find cousins near or far, in France or abroad, to exchange about a common past. And we love even more the fact of finding original little nuggets in the life story of some ancestors (sometimes famous!).
Here's a brief sample of some good reasons to get started... So convinced?
See you soon on Geneafinder, our private and free genealogy site, to grow your tree and find your ancestors!