Joynealogy

As I prepare to make flight bookings for my journey back to Salt Lake City for Rootstech 2016 I am thinking about the folk I will meet there.

I have been doing family history for 27 years and am still an amateur. For me it is not an academic pursuit but a fun albeit serious hobby. Joynealogy, the title of a genealogy blog I follow (joynealogy.blogspot.com), also describes the feelings of elation I get from my genealogy activities. It is a feel good  pursuit that fills me with joy whenever I make a new discovery or teach a group, friend or contact new new trick or tool.

I regularly speak or attend talks and meetings at local societies. Most of the people I encounter at these events are there because they too experience Joynealogy. I have been to four out of five Rootstechs, the greatest genie show on earth, and love these events mainly for the people that I meet from the old pros, to enthusiastic youngsters and beginners of all ages.

Most of the people who attend Rootstech or grassroots events at local societies are amateurs like me. They want to learn how to find their ancestors but do not worry about the correct way to cite a source, they just record enough detail to lead someone else to find that source. They will never bother with  Proof Arguments. Their methods of organisation may be haphazard like mine but they are having fun while learning about their ancestors, recording their lives for posterity and sharing their stories. Their  methodology may be unique like mine (not adhering to one of those fat expensive texts) and supported by information skills developed during years of life, work and tertiary study.

I think that more of the 22,000 people who crowded into the exhibition hall at Rootstech on the Saturday  were amateurs like me and probably not (unlike me) society members. They were there for a hit of Joynealogy.