Genealogy Is ___________

Genealogy is a wonderful thing. It's like a good book......it starts out a little slow, then adds a little mystery. The deeper you get into the book the more it sucks you in until you can't put it down. It makes you ask questions and keeps stringing you along until.......BAMMMM - you're at the end of the book when it all comes together and the question is answered. The only problem with genealogy is that the book is never done. One answer leads to 5 more questions and you start all over again.

For a lot of people genealogy is just a bunch of names and dates - cut and dry and boring. For me genealogy is a step back in time. It's a window into the lives of people who lived before me. When I search for my ancestors not only do I search for their names and their dates, I search for their lives. I want to know when they lived, how they lived, what they did for a living, what kind of a house they lived in, what they died from, and why they made the decisions that they did.

Genealogy is my therapy. When everything else in my life becomes overwhelming and my stress level is high I can bury myself in my research and forget about the rest of the world and all my problems. As much as I love the present, I crave the past. It's like an addiction.