Hobby Thread - July 13, 2024 [TRex]

Welcome hobbyists! While you mourn the passing of Dr. Ruth and Richard Simmons, pull up a chair and sit a spell with the horde. Do not adjust your interweb. This thread is headed to olden days. A spin of the Ace of Spades wheel of hobbies has come up with a theme of family history and genealogy for this week.

Who am I? Where did I come from? How did I get here?

Have you traced your family's history? How far back does your knowledge go? Do you have famous (or infamous) ancestors? Have you done research on the web or books? How has family history been passed down to you (i.e., photographs, old family bibles, etc.)? Have you physically visited towns and places in your heritage? Where are your ancestors laid to rest? Do you have favorite sources or techniques for finding family history? Do you have stories of finding unexpected things in your family line? Has anyone unexpectedly contacted you in their family history search? Do you save and scan old photos? Do you have boxes of photos or family papers that need sorting, labeling, scanning, etc.? Do you have old family photos, but no idea who is in them?

Let's not turn this thread into a Jerry Springer episode with crazy family stories. We can also leave aside comments on Mormon theology or marriage practices. We're here to talk about family records and research and history. As usual, keep this thread limited to hobbies. Politics and current events can wait for other threads - even those involving candidate family dynamics. Play nice.

"Dead people are easy to love. It's the living ones who are hard." ~ Laurence Overmire

There is a lot to be said for going deep down the rabbit hole of boat passenger lists, census records, military service files, old maps, birth and death certificates, and old newspaper databases. In the era of technology and access to computers, more and more data is being digitized and recorded. On-line databases allow access to treasure troves of information from the comfort of your living room.

Another element involves the exact opposite - researching family history can be an excuse to go places and meet people you would never have been and met otherwise. We've met lovely people (not just family relations), walked numerous graveyards, met caretakers, been invited into homes, shuttled around farmland in a personal car by someone we just met, found charming villages and churches, and traced military unit movements. We like history and appreciate knowing more about our ancestors but genealogy has been a gateway to places and people.

Top photo - the ancestral seat of the imperial House of Hohenzollern is Hohenzollern Castle, located in Baden-Wurttemberg in Germany. The castle was built between 1846 and 1867 and is more of a showpiece than an actual residence. It is one of Germany's most visited castles. The Ancestral Hall walls are decorated with the family tree. The dynasty goes back to the 11th century. Red colors on the tree belong to the Swabian branch and blue belongs to the Franconian branch. The descendants are listed on the walls up to the present day.

Why Is Genealogy Important to Mormons?

Mormons, Genetics, & Digitized Data

Search resources for those not sure where to start:

Do you have an ancestor that came through Ellis Island? Check out the free Ellis Island Passenger Search database. It has 65 million records of passengers arriving to the Port of New York from 1820 to 1957.

The Find-a-Grave website has an enormous database of cemeteries and those resting comfortably in those cemeteries. There are photos of many headstones and family information about other relatives.

FamilySearch is the free equivalent to Ancestry.com. It is run by the Mormon church. A free account is required to dig beneath the surface, but it can be a resource if you're looking for an easy place to start.

Top tip: if you're doing research, find primary sources - and validate where possible. If you're copying the results of others, you may be repeating and perpetuating mistakes.

Headlines that didn't exist a century ago:

Sperm donor who fathered 550 children ordered to stop

Netflix's 'Man With 1000 Kids' puts a spotlight on the lack of international regulations for sperm donors

Did you miss last week's hobby thread with an independence day flag theme? The comments may be closed, but you can re-live the content.

Notable comment from last week:

Another notable comment from last week:

Honorable mention comment:

Words of wisdom:

"Because despite all our troubles, when things are grim out in that wide round world of ours, that's when it's really important to have a good hobby." Posted by: tankascribe at June 22, 2024 07:41 PM (HWxAD).

If family history is not your thing and you have trouble finding something in the content or comments that resonates with you, you may be beyond redemption. In any case, hijack the thread for your hobbying as you see fit. We will feature a different hobby next time around. Send thoughts or suggestions to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Ace of Spades is not responsible for rotten parts of your family tree. Please do not leave unwanted family members at the hobby thread HQ.

posted by Open Blogger at 05:30 PM

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