Having Fun with Research!

Today I had the pleasure of presenting to the Ventura County Genealogical Society, http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cavcgs/ . One of the compliments I love to get is that I made the presentation fun. That is so important to me because I think genealogy should be fun. Yes, research can be tedious, difficult and time consuming. And yes, there are ancestors you will research for years with little progress. But genealogy is and should be fun. Otherwise, why do it?

There is so much about genealogy that I love and I try to convey that when I present to societies. There are times that the research process gets to me but in those times I redirect my efforts. Genealogy is such a large field and there are so many things you can do besides researching that difficult line. It’s good to step away from a difficult project once in a while. For example:

• Go read a genealogy how to book, and get some pointers.
• Check out some new websites. Cyndi’s List (http://www.cyndislist.com/), Linkpendium(http://www.linkpendium.com/) and Family Tree Magazine (http://www.familytreemagazine.com/GeneralMenu/), just to name a few, are great places to find genealogical websites.
• Ask a friend if you can do some research for her. Working on someone else’s genealogy give you an opportunity to try to solve a different research problem.
• Try transcribing some records, either through a large project like Family Search Indexing (http://www.familysearchindexing.org/en/home/home.jsf?pname=homeTab) or start a project on your own. This allows you to become more familiar with records and what is available.
  

Genealogy is a lot of fun and exciting. Don’t let the process get you down, just change what you are doing for a little bit and give something new a try.