Why genealogy?

[pinefamily]

I don't think I have seen this asked anywhere else.
Have you ever been asked, or asked yourself, why did you get into genealogy?
I know myself that I first started many years ago after watching the mini-series "Roots", by Alex Haley.
So what stirred the rest of you?

Darren

[Lydart]

I think it was a 'roots' thing ... just wanting to know where we originated, and the possible truth behind family stories

[PrueM]

My nana always wanted to know who her father was (she was illegitimate) - never found that out, sadly, but got to the root of A LOT of family myths!!!

[suey]

I began when a family member died and we received a condolence letter from relatives in Australia.  They asked did anyone know anything about the family's early history.  They really only wanted to know about grandparents and cousins at that time...........but, like Topsy 'it just growed'  

Suey

[Trees]

Seeing our long waited for baby(after 13 yrs of marriage and waving good by to my 43rd birthday!) with his dad grand dad and gt grand dad. Then wanting to find something to keep Grampy interested he went on to tell us stories from his childhood until he died nearly 104.
I had always been interested in Geography and why places developed and declined, and an generally interested in anthropology and a nosey nature.
Trees

[KathMc]

I started out as a way to get closer to my mom, and learn about her family, which we didn't know much about. Boy, did it snowball.

Kath

[kooky]

I began when my father died in 1996. My mother gave me various certificates from his family.
I asked my mother for similar items and all she had was her own birth cert.!
She did not know where her father was born for instance.
I decided to investigate when I retired in 2004, as a way of keeping busy
I began slowly, and by the retirement I was already well on with things.
Now I have a room where there is very little other than family history.
I'm well and truly hooked!
Kooky

[Joyful]

Although only a new member of rootschat I've been reasearching for a number of years. The simple truth is that I can't stand not knowing things. My Dad's Mum died when he was only three so he knew nothing of her family, or indeed of his father's and that bothered me. I couldn't understand how someone could be content knowing only the very bare bones of their background.
Also, I grew up hearing stories of Scotland and having chats with my Grandmother and consequently have stories since proven to be correct about my GG/Grandmother.
I find it absorbing, obsessive and fascinating. After all I'm a part of them and they're all a part of me.

Joy

[IgorStrav]

I started when the 1901 Census became available on line, when I looked up my grandparents on both sides to see where they were living.  My family are great ones for telling tales, so I knew a bit about the family.

Having discovered, to my amazement, that one grandmother was living with plenty of siblings and her parents in a tiny house very close to a part of London we had, without realising, visited regularly, I was intrigued to go further.

Then my cousin, who had been entrusted with documents relating to family history, as the eldest son of the eldest son of the family, somewhat reluctantly passed on the information to me.  He only had a daughter and therefore couldn't maintain his proud position as senior in the family.

Imagine his distress when I subsequently discovered that, contrary to his understanding that he was the eldest son of the eldest son of the eldest son - our mutual greatx3 grandfather was illegitimate, and our mutual greatx2 grandfather WASN'T the eldest son, but the third! 

I don't think he's quite recovered, but I have an extensive tree, just in the 19th Century, of all the relatives.