Born To Be a Family Researcher

I've known for quite some time that I had found something I really liked to do. Research. Specifically, family research.

As a kid, being raised in a fairly strict Catholic family, we all went to parochial schools - most of us starting in grade 1 through grade 12. We went to church every Sunday, most of the time as a family. You were grown up when you could be trusted to attend mass on Sunday on your own. One of my favorite parts of the Sunday routine was reading the church bulletin. I remember the publication of the funeral notices, the marriages and then there was the ever intriguing "Heirs of Christ" - those infants (usually) being baptized that week. I read those rather religiously probably from the time I could read. Of course, I thought Heirs was pronounced HIRES, but I was a kid and I don't think that word was ever used in the lower elementary grades.

From those church announcements, I progressed to obituaries. Death notices are okay, and sometimes somewhat informative, but obituaries often gave occupation, parents' names (even though they were often deceased themselves) wives maiden names, birth dates, year of marriage and hobbies.

I still love looking for obituaries although my search methods are much more sophisticated. With the advent of the computer age, locating obituaries and death notices can be so much easier. So many locales have indices and databases of death records, that I get excited whenever I see an update to an old favorite site or a totally new index.

Now my searches are no longer confined to death notices, but often include business news, annual reports and society gossip. It's pure bliss for a research-aholic!

Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes