Family Bibles, photo albums, love letters, birth records, marriage licenses, muster papers, land deeds… Our families’ histories have left a long, long paper trail. Through the decades, I have diligently followed this trail, picking through crumbling parchment and thumbing through old tomes with relish. I believe that I have reveled in the process as much as in the discoveries. Perhaps, it is because this type of research has allowed me a hands-on connection to our past. For these brief moments, when I hold the very documents and photographs that those whom have preceded us have held, the boundaries of time dissipate. The veil is lifted.
Knowing how much I revel in tactile research, many of you might find my fascination with online genealogy anathema to my old-fashioned heart. Some have questioned my need to start a comprehensive online tree a decade ago, a family Facebook group a few years ago, and, more recently, a blog. One research acquaintance has even inferred that perhaps the internet has cheapened the genealogical process. (Yeah, right…)
Well, hold onto your bloomers, ladies and gentlemen, I have just crossed over to the dark side… or into the age of enlightenment… or right smack in the looney bin… (depending on whom you ask.) Our family tree now has… wait for it… a Pinterest profile.
“Great Scott, say it ain’t so!” scream the genealogical purists. “Nooo,” wail the OCD among us who just-can’t-stop-pinning-ever. “Hip! Hip! Hooray!”, shouts the rest of family. (Okay, maybe not, but one can dream, right?) No matter where you might stand, I hope y’all will enjoy the latest step in our genealogical quest. Oh yes, the times, they are a-changin’.
#familytree #genealogy #pinterest
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