Joy of Discovery

Most people love Christmas, especially the anticipation of the gifts. What are in your packages? What did someone get you? What surprises await? The feeling of excitement can be palpable. 

And as we open each present, we sometimes are just satisfied with what we are given. But sometimes, there is a gift that offers more than you ever imagined. Whatever you find in the box or bag is unexpected and fills your heart with joy. And this makes you want more.

Genealogy can be much the same way. In our search for our ancestors, we find names, dates and places, which is the trifecta of family history. But as we are finding those life details, we happen to come across other unanticipated information that sometimes leaves us speechless.

In researching your ancestor and trying to make it one more generation back, you come across a land record that lists the ancestor, the parents, and the grandparents! That’s three generations in one document; overjoyed is putting it mildly.

Newspapers can be a treasure trove of information, and it’s those little life tidbits that keep us wanting more. Reading through a newspaper article, you discover that your great-great grandfather was getting a divorce. However, you did not know that he had remarried after his first wife died. Away we go down the rabbit hole of discovery. Whom did he marry? When and where did it happen? Even though the news article claimed that she abandoned him, will the court records provide any more details about this divorce?

Another great-great grandfather, who immigrated from England in 1856, accumulated quite a lot of land and property in town and in the country. When he died in 1917 he left a very detailed will giving property descriptions of the land each child inherited. Lo and behold, at the end of the will where he lists what he is leaving to his two youngest children, it declares that they will be getting his land in Canada. Canada?! Everything known about him up to this point was all in either Devonshire, England or Illinois. No one ever mentioned our neighbors in the north. There is another trip down the path of discovery. Where is the land? When did he get it? Why did he choose to buy land in Canada? 

As in these examples, if you just stop with the names, dates, and places, you will not discover their life, the paths they took, or the choices they made; you would not be able to tell their story.

Paths can have many twists and turns, but it’s the discovery that draws us in. Knowing full-well that not all our questions will get answers, this path is what gives us the joy of discovery.

Mary
Midwest Genealogy Center