21 February 2011

Genealgy is shifting. Where do you stand.

Genea-Musings: Three (or more!) Genealogy Worlds?

Way in on where you think the genealogy world is going. It's moving fast toward technology based research. Are you following suit? What are the draw backs? What are the advantages?

My response to Randy's post was: "I'd say I'm probably in the Techie group. Again it has a lot to do with one point you made we have families, work full time jobs, and only go to repositories as a last resort, in my case I'd like to go much more, but time is the issue. I think technology is the one thing that is making this hobby/profession more available to the younger everyday working class person. We don't have the luxury of time due to retirements, but we need information, usually quickly so we can keep the momentum. I am looking forward to more records available online. I use every source I can find online to help with my researches, and at times even gracious lovely volunteers who have more time then I or are in a location I can not afford to travel too. But we must still be careful to source everything and research thoroughly."

What do you think?

Tough lengthy another great read on the subject, written by Greta Toward a Genealogical Democracy . I couldn't have said this better myself. So I'll let you read her post. She makes some great points and pulls from others who have posted on the subject.

Here's my view. We all play a roll in genealogy. Some traditionalists my not embrace Techies and visa verse, but if they would look at it this way maybe they could. As a Techie I truly appreciate the traditionalist who is most likely retired and has more time on their hands to go to a facility and volunteer their time to find records that I would otherwise never find either because of geographic location or time. I'm a mother of three with a full time job. What research I'm able to do is generally online, with some small portions of time at local repositories, but with out the traditional genealogist there are so many records I may never be able to find. They are important to me. In return I have those that have appreciated my knowledge of computers and online research to help them quickly and easily compile what they have gathered. If we realize that we all serve a purpose and embrace each other strengths instead of criticising then we may accomplish more.

2 comments:

Marian said...

I'm probably a rare and unusual breed. I'm a techie whose research is primarily in undigitized deed and probate records. I can see both sides but anyone who is a nay sayer against technology is just holding progress back. I think it happens every time there is a technological shift that impacts a large population. Bring it on but understand that everything is not digitized - yet.

Territory Mom said...

Hi, I am working on a post about a dear lady who died in our community. I found your site while searching for her family history. She was the great grandaughter of Jesse Chisholm. Here is her obit: http://www.parksbrothersfuneralhome.com/

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