What I’m thankful for…
As the genealogical community here in the United States heads off to celebrate Thanksgiving, The Legal Genealogist invites readers to stop for a few days and take stock.
Just what is it that we’re thankful for?
The opportunity, as today’s graphic suggests, to eat, drink and be thankful is — all by itself — something to be thankful for. I hit Medicare age this year, and that alone is a wonder.
Not just the fact that I now have Medicare, which is a wonderful thing. But, more importantly, the fact that I made it to 65 despite all the dumb stunts I’ve pulled in my life.
So just waking up each day is indeed something to be thankful for.
Being part of this community of genealogists, too, is something to be thankful for. We’re like a bunch of cousins — at least of the kissin’ variety. We snarl and spat and fight and fuss — and we have each others’ backs, 100 percent. We can mess with each other, sure, but nobody outside messes with any one of us.
But it doesn’t have to be big huge existential things, like life and the love of friends, that we’re thankful for.
Sometimes it’s the littler things. Things like:
• The Library of Virginia replacing its old reader printers with the ScanPro microfilm scanners.
• The National Archives in Washington, D.C., letting you scan a file for free if you’re researching onsite, as long as it can then put the digitized record online.
• Hein Online making access to its collection Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law available to everyone — free.
• And — sigh — like finding Probate Record Book A from Wharton County, Texas, has been digitized by Ancestry so you can double-check that page citation. At 3 a.m. In your bunny slippers.
What’s on your thankful-for list in 2016?
* Living within two hours of the places where my ancestors lived, so I can easily do research on-site, in-person.
* Living today, and not 100 years ago, where I would undoubtedly have contributed to the sad statistics of children who do not live to be adults. Appendicitis at age 10 would have done me in, if I made it that long.
* Living in a country that feels that government records belong to the people, and should be scanned and made available for free.
* Having people like yourself to encourage us or give us a kick in the b**t when we need it 🙂
Good ones… I lost a great grandfather to gallbladder disease in 1912… and now that’s laproscopic surgery…
My gr-grandmother, b. in 1890, fell when she was 5 years old and broke her kneecap. Her father could not, or would not, pay for a doctor, so my gr-grandmother walked with a permanent limp for the rest of her life. She died in 1969.
Hard to imagine, isn’t it? That would be a relatively easy fix now…
1-Now living in my home area after wandering the world for 36 years–and loving it!
2-The local courthouse and library just a few miles from my home
3-That so very dull birthplace pedigree chart that shows all of my family lines back through my gg-grandparents living within 50 miles of my current home–and I can research onsite to my hearts content
4-All of those digitized records coming online at FamilySearch for my backcountry Carolina kin
5-Your blog
6-All of my genealogy family and friends who try to keep me out of trouble–and, boy, is that a tough job!
Love ’em!!
1. I’m thankful that both my paternal grandfather and my maternal grandmother valued education. In the midst of the depression my grandparents made it possible for my parents to enroll in college.
2. I’m thankful that I listened to my mother when she told me stories about her family and that I actually wrote some of the information down.
3. The ability to zoom digitized records to 200%. Now I can actually read records I printed off of microfilm 20 years ago!
Good ones! Happy Thanksgiving!
An audience member who told me of the digitization of that one diocesan archive in Bavaria, which took the family back eight generations…
A declaration of intention, confirming the country, which caused me to reread a passenger list entry, which took the family back six generations…
A memorable, once-in-a-lifetime family trip to Ireland this past spring…
Worthy choices all. Happy Thanksgiving, Dave!
I convinced both of my parents to do DNA tests to help me with my genealogy even though they didn’t really want to do it. Plus, it snowed for the first time this season today.
I’d be thankful for the first… but I’m not a winter person on the second! 🙂
I’m grateful for the genealogists, bloggers, and teachers who I look up to. I’m grateful that I was able to spend as much time as I did with my mom before her body quit, but I still wish she were with me today. I’m grateful for my newly-found sister and the relationship we are building. I’m grateful for my home, food, clothing, furry critters, people who love me, and people whom I love.
Great choices there! Happy Thanksgiving!
Thankful for Aunts and cousins. Always wanted to see photo’s of my g-grandparents. Searched everywhere. Then this year, one of my cousins said “I will try to get time and look thru Mom’s pics”. Well, thank you Aunt Dot and cousin Bobbi, bless your heart, there were the photos I longed to see and never knew existed.
Oh that’s so cool, Stan!! Happy Thanksgiving!
I’m thankful for my husband learning about DNA with me. He’s so wonderful! Really loved the opportunity to learn from Blaine Bettinger and Cece Moore and others this year. I’m going to deep dive into helping people find their family with DNA, as well as more of my own. Some Rhode Island obituaries are now online, hopefully more records will follow.