Does any one find family history (Genealogy) addictive?

Question

I've been researching my maternal grandmother's family tree for her for eight months and every time I find something new in the family I can't seem to stop looking for more. There's so many of them and I'm only on her father's side of the family!!! Somehow I've made it grow and grow. I'm finding it extremely fascinating but exhausting at the same time. I love it!!!

Answer 1

I started tracing my family history about 18 years ago with my dad in the days before so many records were available on line.  When my dad died in 2001 I didn't have the heart to continue but I took it up again a year ago and the family tree now has over 2500 names on it!  It grows every week and through Ancestry.com I've made contact with some long lost family so it's been a hugely rewarding exercise and yes it can be addictive.  I've got my daughter doing it now too and she's equally as addicted.  We got really excited the other day as we were going to look for family graves in some cemetaries and we had to laugh that we were getting so giddy about going to a graveyard!

Answer 2

We've been searching for my husband's family (he has no living relatives in his close family) for nearly two years, with little success farther back that his Mum and Dad.  Now we joined an internet site and have discovered cousins and second cousins  who can tell him all about his own family and can trace back to a common Great Grandfather - it's great and certainly very addictive: don't expect any housework done on searching days!

Answer 3

it sure is - now i run my own business in it goldenmemoriescharts.co.uk

Answer 4

YES TOTALLY, I started back in 1991 and love it more and more as time goes on,  When I started the Internet was not that common so all the work had to be done the old fashioned way.  I have made contacts around the world and heard some wonderful stories and some sad ones.

I have found and met up with a first Cousin who I had never met and we were about 50.

You can always spot a Family Historian we are the ones who at the end of a film scan the credits just in case we are the ones who cannot pass a War memorial or grave yard with out a quick scan.

To all who follow this path GOOD LUCK AND GOOD HUNTING.

Answer 5

Love it-love it the more I search the more I want to find more. Its very addicting , but oh so rewarding. I never cared for history in school but just love family history and the different countries that are involved.

Answer 6

After 30 years of searching, I can honestly say that I am not addicted!

I am obsessed!!!!!!!!!!!

Why else would I be in the Genealogy section of Y!A?

Answer 7

I think everyone does. It started for me when I made my first breakthrough, and since then it's proven to be a real eye-opener. It's amazing what you can find out. I think it's more addictive when you do the research YOURSELF though. I've had people do it for me, but because you haven't done the journey yourself, it;s not as rewarding.

Answer 8

Yes

Answer 9

lol im the same as you, its very addictive, make sure you buy the certificates, I traced one branch far back, ordered the certificate and found out I traced the wrong family!

I wont be doing that again, but yes I love it and its very addictive

Answer 10

I too am so addicted to it. I have got back to 1503 on one part of my husbands family. The only problem is sometimes you hit a brick wall like in my own paternal side, and you then get very frustrated that you cannot move onto the next level back.

Answer 11

I think my mother invented Feng shui and "de-clutter" (I am a compulsive hoarder!).  She destroyed and burned everything which wasn't necessary.  When my father died in 1982, leaving 2 Death Certificates and his passport I realised how much of my history was unknown - not even my own Birth Certificate existed. "Why do you need Certificates when you know you've been born, married, died?"

Then I started buying - every single one back to 1837; then Parish Registers & microfilms, then Trees on an Amstrad in Locoscript, using a dot matrix printer.

I'm still working on it - still some annoying gaps on my mother's side which 20 years haven't resolved, and still keep coming back to it.

Answer 12

It is addictive, get on the computer, and 3 to 4 hours have passed before you realise it.

I think my favourite part is looking at ancient Church registers, pre-1837, before national registration. To see those signatures (and marks for those who were illiterate) of those forebears, who may have been just names to you or long-lost, brings them to life, and makes you realise the frailty of life. It also makes me feel close to the long dead relatives that I can remember.

I also like walking in their footsteps in their home parishes, and visiting the Churches they attended.