Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Coming Back Slowly - Post 1

I've been off for a long while. The passion I'd worked under no longer drove me. I have had a great deal of trouble finding it again after the bone marrow transplant. But, it is slowly returning. I'm certainly not working as I once did, but that's ok. I will get there.

One thing I have had is lots of time to think as I try to recover and worry over what I thought was a lost passion. I realized I had been needing to define what that passion was. Often, in the community, the argument is made about who is or is not a genealogist. I find the argument time wasting, divisive and quite frankly, a little elitist. One thing was clear to me, though. I wanted to find and record my family history. That was my goal in the very beginning so many years ago. 

That is finally settled, at least in my heart. I am a family historian.  Now, I may under the title of “family historian” refer to myself as a genealogist. Merriam-Webster Online states that a genealogist is “a person who traces or studies the descent of persons or families”. On the other hand, I may refer to myself as the family historian. Again, Merriam-Webster Online states that a historian is “1. a student or writer of history; especially : one who produces a scholarly synthesis”; 2. “a writer or compiler of a chronicle”. Family is pretty self-explanatory, so I will let you define that one as you see it. I'll just say I'm a genealogist when I am looking for documents, dates, places and names, and call myself a family historian when I am fleshing out the people and the era . I feel the love and passion coming back.



I feel so much better now that has been solved. Now, on to the next problem. I hope it works out this well.



Merriam-Webster Online
Definition of:  genealogist, historian
http://www.merriam-webster.com/
  

1 comment:

Miriam Robbins said...

Welcome back! I have started blogging regularly for the first time in about three years. It was hard to get going, but I started scheduling my posts and have really kept to it, even when it's hard to keep up. It feels good to be back into the swing of things. I'm looking forward to reading more of your stories!

RootsTech!

 Today is the day!!!!