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/
