Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Ellen's Questions Part 4

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:

It's Saturday Night again -

time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing has our assignment for this week.

1)  Ellen Thompson-Jennings posted 20 questions on her Hound on the Hunt blog three weeks ago - see Even More Questions About Your Ancestors and Maybe A Few About You (posted 27 June).

2)  We will do these five at a time - Questions 16 to 20 tonight (we did 1 through 5 three weeks ago, questions 6 through 10 two weeks ago, and questions 11 through 15 last week)

3)  Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook post.

Here's mine:

16)  If you’re into DNA which would you say you work on more? Genealogy or DNA? Or about the same?

I have not really worked on DNA much, so I’d say I do more genealogy than DNA. Maybe someday I’ll have a problem that DNA will be a valuable piece of evidence.

17)  Do you think that your genealogy is ever really done?

Genealogy is never done, as there will always be another parent to find. However, depending on where your ancestors are from, there may be a limit to the kinds of sources that will help answer parentage. My lines in Ireland are such, that I doubt I’ll find the answer to who the parents are for Jeremiah Sullivan and Mary Sheehan, but I won’t give up yet.

As for done, I think that what I should do is complete a write-up of what I’ve found so far, so that my work can live on without me. Otherwise, my work might be tossed by my descendants. It’s the least we can do.

18)  Did you ever search an ancestor’s name on the internet and you were surprised at what you found?

I’m never surprised to find information about my ancestors. I am always joyous in finding information. So far I have not found any surprises—such as a black-sheep ancestor or royalty or being related to a president. I was surprised (and a little shocked) to find out how my great-grandfather died from drinking carbolic acid.

A death found by doing a Google search

19)   Do you ever feel like your ancestors are nudging you in the right direction in your research?

I wished my ancestors would nudge at me better. Like Samuel Johnston. Why can’t you tell me where you were from in South Carolina?

20)  If you could give one piece of advice to someone new to genealogy, what would you tell them? 

First, slow down. This is not a race to see how far back you can get in the shortest amount of time. Savor the journey by learning all you can about each ancestor and their family. They did not live in isolation in their generation. They had siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles.  Second, record your source and thoughts about each document you collect while it is fresh—while it’s in your hands or on your computer screen. You’ll thank yourself later.

Copyright © 2019 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.