What is genealogy?

Genealogy is actually the tracing of a person's own ancestors. The idea behind genealogy is that a person traces their ancestors from themselves backwards as far as they can go. There are people who do

genealogy or family history who stick strictly with facts: born, married, died, children. Other people go almost in a sideways motion and they are interested in knowing what went on in the time that a particular ancestor lived and try to actually what we call flesh out ancestors so that you have more of a feeling that you knew that person. Right now, genealogy happens to be one of the fastest growing hobbies in the world. It really took off when the movie Roots was shown on TV and hasn't slowed down since. People became very interested in their own family history and also in the age their grandparents or great grandparents lived. In the past, families often lived in one area and they lived and died within just a few miles, but nowadays you don't usually have a family that is clustered together so you don't have a large extended family close by. Most people move several times during their lives and often live in a city where they have no relatives. As we all age, we become more interested in who we are and where we came from and that is what genealogy is about. If you love mysteries and puzzles, then this is the hobby for you.

By and large genealogists and family historians are very giving and sharing people because the only way we all can get the information we need is to help each other. That's one of the things that sets this hobby apart from so many others, everyone is willing to share because it's only through sharing that the information gets spread around enough. There is a large on-line sharing group - the USGenWeb Project (http://www.usgenweb.com) that is completely manned by volunteers. If you look at our Marion county, Arkansas, site (http://www.rootsweb.com/~armarion/) for example, you are going to find transcribed records - such things as old newspapers, deed indexes, tax lists, and voters lists. There is somebody like Karen and me for every county and every state in the United States out there putting up information and they are doing it in their spare time. They are skimping on sleep, taking care of their life, and still doing things for the genealogy community.

Another thing many of us do is whenever we find an old Bible at a garage sale or an estate sale and it has the names of family members, who married who, birth dates, and deaths, we always buy it. There is a place online http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~familybibles/index.html) where you can list the Bible and describe the contents (there may be somebody who has been looking for that Bible for years), you can send the actual Bible to the family it belongs to for the cost of the Bible and postage