Hobby or Passtime?

[Rishile]

I have just been having a debate (argument) with a work colleague who enjoys fishing.  I was telling him about my latest brick wall that tumbled last night and he said that it was just a passtime whereas fishing is a hobby. 

I claim that geneology and fishing are both hobbies because they are both 'planned' but he claims I just tap away at a computer and that I'm just 'passing the time'.

Any views before it gets too heated?

Rishile

[stevew101]

I would say that it is more than tapping away at a computer.  There are research visits to the local archives, the local library.  Visits to the towns or villages where our ancestors may have come from, visits to the churches, church yards etc.  I would guess that a non fisherman would say that fishing is no more than holding on to a pole, whilst sitting on a riverbank..

[groom]

According to the Oxford dictionary, the definition of a hobby is:

An activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure.

The definition of pastime is:

An activity that someone does regularly for enjoyment rather than work; a hobby:


So they are just different words but mean the same thing. 

[iluleah]

Two very different hobbies, however both very similar in many ways he goes and dangles a bit of line into the water in the HOPE he will catch a fish, you  search written record in the HOPE to find your ancestor and both used to enjoy leisure time.

Your work colleague knows little about family history if he thinks it is 'tapping away at a computer' far more to it than that, ask him when the internet was invented and before home computers became the 'norm' FH was very sucessfully done in records offices and churches and for those of us now that who are not seduced by genealogy companies marketing into thinking that you 'find your ancestry online' we still do...

[groom]

The problem is, that programmes such as "Who Do You Think You Are?" and the television adverts where they say, "Just type in your name and you will get your ancestors" have made people think it is easy.

[Rishile]

The problem is, that programmes such as "Who Do You Think You Are?" and the television adverts where they say, "Just type in your name and you will get your ancestors" have made people think it is easy.

Yes, I agree with you there.  Maybe that is what he is thinking and if it was really that simple I would tend to agree with him.

However, I generally consider it an obsession rather than a hobby 

Rishile

[bearsome]

I think it's an obsessive hobby! I have loads of hobbies (my Dad always said that I had too many!) - genealogy (obviously), gardening, card-making, our equines and other pets, and story-writing. Some might say that gardening isn't a hobby, but something that has to be done, therefore a household chore. And some would query whether looking after pets is a hobby.  Personally, being someone who likes paperwork, I get almost as much pleasure out of keeping all my family history papers nicely presented, as I do in the research itself. Family history research isn't just passing time, because you're actually learning, and piecing things together.  Btw, a friend's husband goes fishing, he rarely catches anything, so isn't that just passing time?

[a-l]

Anyone who thinks genealogy is passing the time has quite obviously never attempted it .  Maybe starts as a hobby then an addiction and obsession ,which as we know can be life long.

[Mike in Cumbria]

I wouldn't waste time arguing - I'd just push him in the canal!