In 1972, I received an assignment in History class. Our teacher, Mr. Bertrand Delaquis, told us to draw up our Family Tree. He wasn't expecting this assignment to be done in a few weeks. He said it could be a little challenging at times. There would be research required of church records and archives. He knew it would take us a while, therefore we had until the end of the year to hand it in. He did say, he wanted it to be as complete as possible. Moreover, the more generations we could include, if possible, the better the grade.
I distinctly remember thinking this was going to be a piece of cake. After all, I knew who I was; I knew who my parents were; I knew who my grandparents were; I even knew who my great-grandparents were. I definitely knew I had enough relatives who were old enough that I could get further information from, if necessary. And....as a bonus, I also had an ace up my sleeve: I was "French". In my mind, it was an advantage because we had been in this country a long, long time. After all, "WE" were here first! (Oh...did I mention I went to a French Catholic school - so our history books/records 'might' have been a little biased.) Regardless, there would be records, and I could get to them. Let the games begin!
It is now 2012. I am no where near finished. Somewhere along the line, I realised that just being the one making the family tree was extremely inadequate. I realised I almost needed to become a detective. The discrepancies in my research were astounding; the brick walls were countless. The frustration was exasperating! But mainly, other members of my extended family had versions of their tree, that just did not ring true. There were factors being ignored that were just plain ludicrous. I needed a genealogist, or needed to become a genealogist.
What is the difference you ask? Well, the Family Tree Maker is the one who gathers all the names, and dates, and locations according to family members, and when necessary church records. The Maker of the tree compiles the information and might even have a graphic representation of the generations to enter all this information on. This lucky person gets to hear all the variations of who their family was, where they came from, why they moved to certain areas of the country, or maybe even why they moved across the ocean. They get to hear and log fascinating stories, family legends and sometimes even discover dirty little family secrets, or things that have been hidden in the closets for years. They end up with enough different stories, or quirks in their stories, that they don't know which to believe. This is usually when they will chose the one that makes the most sense to them, or the one they are most willing to accept, and enter it as gospel. This is their tree, and that's all there is to it!
The Genealogist, on the other hand, is the one who looks at the tree, and rips it apart, separating fact from fiction. The genealogist arms him/herself with history, and government records. The more in depth knowledge they have of birth countries, the more access they have to government documents, the more likely they are to make accurate assessments of family stories. The genealogist is the one who becomes a detective. More often than not, they end up proving that things are wrong, or that they couldn't possibly have occurred and sometimes create controversy. They will spend years trying to prove what actually did happen, and often come up empty handed. The genealogist however will never just accept hearsay. Everything must be verified.
No comments:
Post a Comment