You Will Learn So Much

I often tell people who I’ve learned so much from doing genealogy. Not just about my family but about geography, history, language, occupations and so much more.

When you work on your family history, at least when I do; I have to go to Google map and see where that address is on that census record. Is the house still standing? Zoom out and see what’s around them and where actually they are in the country.

As for history; I’m ashamed to say that I couldn’t have told you when WWI was but once I discovered that my three great grandfather’s were fighting in the war, then it was again off to Google to get more details.  Since then I’ve purchased their war records and I know where the fought. Now when I’m working on a new ancestor, I check what was going on in the world or at least their part of the world at the time I’m looking at.

Language? Even if you don’t know how to order a meal in Italy if you have Italian ancestors then you’ll want to learn the words for births, baptisms, marriages and deaths.

Even occupations can become more knowledge that you can use the next time your playing a game. “I’ll take  Fishmongers for $200 Alex”.

You get the idea.. it may not be information that will get you a degree on the wall but because it’s your ancestor you take an interest in it and learn it probably far better than you should have in school.

But keep in mind that sometimes the reverse is true and things you learned in school and you thought “when will I ever need to know about the British East India Company? ” will also come in handy.

Genealogy has expanded and refreshed my knowledge of the world around me. Perhaps that’s why it’s a good reason to get children interested at an early age.