familytree wrote: . > I still think that's a decision you make at the outset....are you doing > family history or genealogy...although I admit that I have changed my mind > sometimes when the family history becomes particularly intriguing. I also > tend to change my mind on the subject when I find many intermarriages > between families....then I just CAN'T resist the temptation to find out more > ..It is family history AND genealogy in my case...and I rather enjoy the > sounds of the skeletons hanging in the closet
At the outset everyone is a genealogist. Some stay as such for the rest of their researching career but others become family historians. And some follow a middle ground as you have done. The terms get used interchangably so there are reseachers who believe they are the same. So for the benefit of anyone unsure of the differences: Genealogy is the bare bones of research: names, dates, places and nowt else. Family history is the whys and wherefores of what made our ancestors the way they were, the events that influenced their lives. Family history is the meat on the bones of genealogy. Most of the ancillary (branch) lines, the ones who've married in but are somewhat distant, are genealogical. The main lines fall under the heading of family history and I'll call at all the stations along the way, including halts to find out as much as I can. Sometimes it's an event, sometimes it's a name either given or family. The jangling of skeletons in the closet makes for lovely music, to be sure :)) However, the soughing of the wind that's really the laughter of ancestors when they see a puzzle they've set is causing frustration and headaches; the latter from banging one's head against a brickwall they've created deliberately or otherwise. It took 40+ years to find the probable parents of my 5x great grandfather but about 6 weeks to discover why a man's date of death was 5 weeks before the date of his funeral which was held two parishes away from where he died and it wasn't because he had family in the burial parish. -- Charani (UK) OPC for Walton, Ashcott, Shapwick, Greinton and Clutton, SOM http://wsom-opc.org.uk Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
