Climbing the family tree
Why genealogy fascinates us

"A great, great uncle who married his beloved in a lion’s cage when the circus came to town."

"A 13^th great grandfather who sat on the "council" at Jamestown in 1631."

"An ancestor who died of a cut throat the day before she was to testify in a murder trial, but whose death was ruled a suicide."

The scenarios may read like something out of a novel, but they are real tales from real families whose descendents have unearthed their stories, proven their truth and recorded them for future generations.

"A lot of people start out with just stories they’ve heard from various relations," explains John Humphrey, director of the Learning Center for the American Genealogical Society. "That progresses to the curious, ‘what more can I find out’ quest to separate truth and fact from fiction. Eventually, you find yourself getting into the lives of these people who were your ancestors."

Pursuing a hobby

People who pursue their family’s genealogy do it for a variety of reasons. Some, who come from disjointed or adoptive families, search for missing or lost relatives, while others want information about their family’s health history. The majority, though, are hobbyists who pursue it out of pure curiosity.

"I don’t know if there is any importance in knowing that you descended from royalty or that one of your ancestors came over on the Mayflower or that Jesse James was a cousin. It’s just fun and interesting to know it," says James Harrison, an Annapolis, Maryland, who has researched his family for 27 years.

"The thrill of never knowing what you’ll find next is what keeps you going," agrees Ann Liggett of Orange, California who has pursued her genealogy for about seven years. "My oldest sister and I started so our siblings and our children and grandchildren would know about their family. When we started, we just wanted to find the great grandparents. Then, it became an obsession!"

Discovering your ancestors

For people who know little or nothing about their family tree, unraveling the mystery of their lineage provides a greater sense of who they are.

"When my grandfather died in 1974, my mother told me who was at the funeral – I did not recognize the relationships and wanted to learn more," explains Terence Kelley of Omaha, Nebraska, who has researched various lines of his family for 27 years.

Nancy Bell’s interest was also piqued by wanting more information about her maternal grandfather. She went on to discover more details about her family that helped her understand how their genes not only shaped her, but shaped the country.

""Knowing my genealogy gives me a sense of who I am. It also gave me an interest in history, which I never had," says Bell, a Californian who has been tracking her genealogy over 30 years.

For others, like Gail Levis, Davenport, Iowa, who serves as Modern Woodmen’s historian and a lifelong genealogy buff, becoming a keeper of her family’s history is a natural extension of her family’s fondness for storytelling.

"I have been interested in genealogy since I was 10 or 11," Levis says. "My parents were very well acquainted with local history and our family’s place in it. I come from a family of strong storytellers, where knowing our heritage was important."

Making history come alive

Genealogy can be a great resource for making history interesting to children.

"Parents can use genealogy as an opportunity to get children thinking about history on a more personal level," stresses Levis, who has taught genealogy to young children. "I tell children they are a walking, talking piece of their family&