Can you ever say you have finished your family history research?
Until I attended a talk yesterday on One-Name Studies, a discipline related to family history, I would have said that there was no way one could answer YES to this question but I have been enlightened.
You see it's all to do with the Aims and Objectives (which I don't have) one has for one's research.
For years I have thought ill of people who have claimed to have finished their research, Mea Culpa. I had been judging them by my standards. Those folk who were objects of my derision may have had clearly defined aims and objectives that placed limits on the scope of the research they were undertaking and once these were achieved they could proudly boast that they had finished their family history research.
I will never be able to answer YES to the question. I have been thinking about my primary aim and it is simple: to identify all people who are related to me by blood, to collect every scrap of information about them that is presently available and to continue to collect new information as it becomes available. As a secondary aim I collect similar information for my descendants' ancestors.
How would you answer the question? YES or NO
Until I attended a talk yesterday on One-Name Studies, a discipline related to family history, I would have said that there was no way one could answer YES to this question but I have been enlightened.
You see it's all to do with the Aims and Objectives (which I don't have) one has for one's research.
For years I have thought ill of people who have claimed to have finished their research, Mea Culpa. I had been judging them by my standards. Those folk who were objects of my derision may have had clearly defined aims and objectives that placed limits on the scope of the research they were undertaking and once these were achieved they could proudly boast that they had finished their family history research.
I will never be able to answer YES to the question. I have been thinking about my primary aim and it is simple: to identify all people who are related to me by blood, to collect every scrap of information about them that is presently available and to continue to collect new information as it becomes available. As a secondary aim I collect similar information for my descendants' ancestors.
How would you answer the question? YES or NO
3 comments:
I am the same! I said I would write family books for the kids when I'm finished researching, and quickly realized I would never be finished!
So I amended that to "finished for now!"
I can't be convinced. I agree you can meet your interim goals but I don't think I would be at the point to say I have finished.
Hard to imagine in this era where new records are released every month. Every time I think I can't find anything more, I find a new resource is available. But I am writing short summaries of each family for my family which I can easily edit as needed.
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