One Great Family Genealogy

Tracking down ancestors used to be an activity limited to people who had unlimited amounts of time and money, but not anymore with use of genealogy software. It was an activity that invariably involved traveling to distant places. It was the sort of thing that people did if they wanted to prove they were related to somebody who might die and leave them a fortune.

Today, thanks to the internet and other technological advances, genealogy has become an activity that anyone can participate in. Now that it is no longer limited to the families of the rich and famous, some genealogy buffs are discovering that their families are the families of the rich and famous. Once the treasure hunt begins, no end of surprising people might show up in a family tree.

Sometimes an interest in genealogy will begin with questions that arise when a parent or grandparent dies. You realize there is a lot about them you don't know. You might start talking to cousins or other family members to find out what they know and to share photos, old letters and documents.

Assuming the cousins weren't separated by a feud or something, the reason they never talked to each other was probably that they didn't have anything to say. Sally may be a very busy war correspondent and June may be a very busy peace activist. One may listen to classical music and the other may have the world's biggest collection of vinyl jazz albums. They may have nothing in common except their ancestors.

The two cousins who hadn't seen each other since they were ten years old might meet at a funeral. They start talking about the letters that Sally's mother wrote to her brother, June's father while she was in the Peace Corps. Maybe June has those letters and some pictures that Sally would like to see.

Once the cousins have discovered they share a common interest in their parents' lives, they are going to want to know more about their grandparents. That will probably mean contacting more cousins and finding out what they know and what documents their branch of the family has preserved. Thanks to the internet, it will be easy to Echat or Skype with several cousins at the same time in different cities and even on different continents.

Soon there will be questions. Dates might not match up. Blank spaces will appear that will demand to be filled. When the attics and memories of living relatives are exhausted, the seekers will turn to the internet and start exploring websites.

Relatives who barely knew each other a few months ago will start planning trips together to distant small town cemeteries and churches thanks to One Great Family review. In the process, they may discover an ancestor who was an extreme warrior like Al or a gifted musician like Bob. Suddenly instead of belonging to a tiny, isolated family, researchers find themselves part of one great family genealogy fun and adventure club with compare genealogy software.