"We Are The Chosen"

[Guy Etchells]

This will come across as a wet blanket but sometimes I think various family genealogy experts are rather protective of their genealogy empire and very closed to alternate information that disagrees with the picture of the family which they've formed.

If they think they're "the chosen" they'll be even worse!

That is an interesting view however I have almost the opposite view to “being the chosen”. However I do agree that as with smokers who have given up smoking who are rabidly against smoking, some “new” genealogists think they know everything and have proved their lineage rather than offering their research for review.
Or perhaps more accurately like the difference between the old landowners who understand they have a duty to those who work for them and the “new money” who think they are the bosses and the workers must do as they’re told.

I am the youngest of four children in my family, my brothers and my sister had little interest in family history (although one brother did develop an interest in the last ten or so years of his life).
I on the other hand had a deep interest from infancy and cannot explain why it should be so important to me; it is not a hobby but an intrinsic part of my life.

I had a head start due to my grandfather’s research but have still been doing family history for around 62/3 years yet I am learning new things constantly and finding out new information about the family constantly. Yet it is never finished; it does has not been proven and is always open to review by myself and others.

Far from being possessive about my research I feel it is a duty to share my knowledge with others. It is almost as though that from the day I was born I was destined to be the caretaker of my family’s journey through time. Even my name is to commemorate my mother’s lineage; her brother the last male in her family to carry the Guy name being killed in the war.
Why was I given the name Guy (as my only forename) when my elder brother Frank Richard who was born after my uncles death could have been given it? I was told later it was to carry on my mother’s family name.

Whether being “the chosen one” is a blessing or a curse is a debateable point as certainly for me I definitely feel I have a certain duty to record and disseminate the information I discover.

Cheers
Guy

[Josephine]

Lovely sentiments and thoughts by all.

If I were to use one of those sweet poems, I'd have to add a spicy stanza or two about being the pot-stirring one who persists in uncovering details that my ancestors would probably have wanted kept hidden.

 

Best regards,
Josephine

[Treetotal]

  ...I think my Grandma would have said..."What on earth do you want to go digging up the past for nosey parker...it's where it belongs...in the past" 

Carol

[coombs]

The past is the future though I always say.

I shall never give up on my family tree, I check constantly for new records online, and go to RO's when I can. When I am at a RO I must be the visitor to ask for the most original documents using the application slips with ref numbers given in the indexes lol, as not everything is on microfilm or microfiche. I flick through the indexes for relevant parishes of unions to see the coverage of their poor law records, school records, ratebooks, electoral registers, vaccination records, etc stuff outside of the usual PRs, BMDs and census records.

[Geordie daughter]

Along the lines of Mark's Mexican proverb is this extract from the poem "So Many Different Lengths of Time," by Brian Patten:
"A man lives for as long as we carry him inside us,
For as long as we carry the harvest of his dreams,
For as long as we ourselves live,
Holding memories in common,
A man lives."

It's nice to think that by doing what we do, we pass the torch on to the next generation of "storytellers," while continuing the work of the generation before.

[jess5athome]

"A man lives for as long as we carry him inside us,
For as long as we carry the harvest of his dreams,
For as long as we ourselves live,
Holding memories in common,
A man lives."

Now that, I really like 

Frank.

[Geordie daughter]

I think it pretty much sums up what family tree research is all about.