to think family history isn't dull or irrelevant??

[GenieGenealogy]

So my user name probably gives it away - but I am interested in family history / genealogy and have been for years. Decades probably. Have lots of friends and connections who are interested too, from across the world.

Recently met a new person through an unrelated social group and we got chatting about what we did in our free time, I said I was interested in researching my family history and she went into a rant about how dull that must be, how it's completely irrelvant to anyone's life, why on earth anyone would be interested in Sarah who died in 1855 or John who went to America in 1899 and so on.

So do you find it interesting or dull or why? (Or is it something you just don't give any thought to?)

I dont find it dull but i find puzzles dull - I wouldnt say that to someone who enjoyed it though!!

Absolutely fascinated by it. Just looking at the 1921 census and virtually every man in my family was a collier and out of work because of the strike. So many ancestors died underground. Almost every woman ‘at home’ or in service.

In a hundred years so much has changed. It tells me so much about the impact of social changes on the area I live in and the people we are now, mostly in professional jobs, the changes in women’s lives . So much about the language - all were bilingual whereas the Welsh language has almost died out in my family (it’s making a comeback though).

My mum has been obsessed with her family tree for decades and frequently monologues about it for prolonged periods of time. I am very interested in history, but my mum has put me off having any interest in my family tree. I think different people enjoying different things is just how it goes but I probably wouldn’t tell someone I thought their interest was boring.

I don’t like football and find the importance placed on it bizarre, but I never say that to the people who live and breathe it! Each to their own.
Researching my family history has genuinely been the most interesting hobby I’ve ever had. Some of the stories I’ve come across have been surprisingly - a connection to one of Jack the Rippers victims, for one. However, my uncle once remarked that he couldn’t imagined anything more deadly dull than poring over details of the dead! 😂

I'm interested, even in other peoples.

I've always had the urge to carve wood . I am artistic. I found out My GG Grandfather was a master wood carver . I thought it was Amazing when I discovered this . It's helpful to find out what your ancestors died of - like an early warning if genetic . My ancestors have had heart problems up to the present day .

It's very rude to go on a rant at someone personally about their private hobby I'm sorry you had to go through that.

I have a basic interest in that I'm not bothered or interested in going centuries back but I am interested in day the lives back to say 1800 forward because my dad never knew his dad as he was killed in the war before he was born.

In using the various freebies around in certain times and using trials on various sites we have found out lots of information about my grandad on dad's side, including pictures when only one that was found on his body existed before. We now have 2 more and know my dad is identical to his dad! We have also seen a couple of mild nonserious "deformities" that weren't known about written in his war records or visible on the pics, one that has come down two further generations.

We've also found out about the horrendous childhood the poor man had because of his father (my great grandad) leading to the very early form of the nspcc being involved and it being reported in press around the world. We've found that he was much older than his wife and essentially was forced to marry her after getting her pregnant and their first baby was born 6 weeks after marriage. Her life was horrendous and very sad, largely because of that 'man' and she and the children suffered so much.

We've also found a baby brother that sadly died single figures days old of my dad's that was never talked about and he didn't know about. We also have found out, going back into the 1400s, that we aren't from a place we were told that we were from for generations. Noone is from that place in our family!

I am really interested in hearing about other people's ancestry but I really don't fancy finding out about from my own. There's a long line of Irish alcoholics on one side, the other side consists of handsome ladies men (slaggards?). It's a can of worms I don't want to open.

I absolutely love it, and it was a real comfort to me after my DF died unexpectedly; I felt connected to him, although he'd gone, by following the threads of our family tree back generations. In a funny way, as PP have said, it unearthed facts that made sense of certain family stories, like my grandparents' 'over reaction' when I got whooping cough as a baby; I didn't know my great-grandfather's younger brother had died of it as a baby, on Christmas Eve and I'm not sure my parents did either.

I didn't find any 'famous' connections but the real magic is in finding the small moments of local fame that make you feel like Coco, giving the dead person a moment of life after death, because you're remembering them; down one branch I found a Methodist lay preacher who was so popular that when he was killed in a mine accident, brass bands from two local towns paraded with his coffin. Down another I found a grocer who'd helped set up a breakfast club for the local poor kids, so they'd get at least one hot meal a day. Little things, but important enough to get a mention in the local paper. And seriously, local papers - what an incredible resource they were.

But I totally understand that genealogy, like dreams and farts, is really only of interest to the person doing it...

I have zero interest in genealogy or family tree research, but that person was very rude. Different people like different things. I love jigsaw puzzles which I’m aware a lot of people find crashingly dull but idc.

How rude and dismissive to call someone’s interest, dull. I wouldn’t want someone going into huge detail about their family history, but interesting snippets is fine. But people enjoy what they enjoy and what one person finds dull, another can spend a lifetime on. It’s crap to be so dismissive about it. M

I find it all interesting. I have traced my family tree back to 1311, and have found that I am related to the Folger family (anyone from the US will know who they are I think) and the first Nantucket settlers on one direct branch; and to King Charles III on another (although being from a family of Irish Republicans we are kind of keeping that a sceret irl ). Another direct line featured amongst the first UK coverts to the Latter Day Saints and were amongst the first wagon train settlers to travel to Utah.

And by serendipity a total stranger sent me some old postcards they found which were addressed to my previous house (they literally put them in an envelope addressed to the house) which piqued my interest so I set out tracking down the family who lived there, and I am now putting the finishing touches to a book about them which is a fictionalised account of their lives based around the real things that I found out about the woman the cards were sent to, who turns out to have been a suffragist and member of the Labour Party when it was first formed (and is probably spinning in her grave now!).

work as an archivist so have a lot of experience in helping others do their family history, although haven't done that much of it myself. I'm not hugely into it personally but can definitely appreciate why other people are - obviously I am into history so it's a good way of getting a step or window into the past.

I don't think you can say it definitively is/isn't dull or irrelevant, as per your heading, surely it's like any other hobby or interest, it's subjective.
e.g. I wouldn't say "Cricket is boring" I'd say "I think cricket is boring." But tbh that might just be me digressing, it's one of my pet peeves when people announce their opinion as fact!

By the time you get back a century or more the actual genetic material you share with these people is very very limited. I can look at my sister or my aunt and think 'wow we have nothing in common/we are completely different people' and obviously we are far closer connected, both genetically and in terms of lived experience than my great-great grandmother or whatever. Which I suppose is why I haven't delved into it that much myself, personally I find a better connection to history just by coming across individual stories, or accessing original documents, etc (thus the job).

So from that point of view I can sort of understand the 'it's not actually that relevant to your daily life' argument. But then again, the decisions those ancestors made, however small, did end up shaping your life. Like a sliding doors moment, if they'd taken a different job or married someone else you wouldn't be here.

Bit of a ramble but yes I can understand both why people find it interesting and why they don't! But either way that woman was very rude to piss on your chips, so to speak!

The living extended family I have are mainly toxic, so I have zero interest in the people who came before them! Maybe I would feel differently if I was from a different family.

I can imagine that it might be interesting as long as it goes beyond names, dates and marriage certificates.

What I would hate is someone I don’t know tracking me down because they are from the same family line as me. Cousins a 100 times removed are of no interest to me.

I'm currently investigating mine... but i can understand how someone might find it deeply boring. I don't find it that exciting. I just started because I wanted to find someone.
There's been a lot of adoptions and secrets in my family.
I think although that sounds like it would be exciting, it's had the opposite effect. I grew up thinking I was biologically related to people I wasn't.. and with many rifts in the family... so now I just don't put much stock in bloodline. I don't find it that interesting. I'm more invested in friendships, which seem more real to me.

yes this. I think you need to give that person a huge swerve . It’s what she thinks, thoughts aren’t facts.

I find it quite dull. But if someone told me they were interested in it I'd just smile and nod.

I have always been interested in it. Even my father as a student in the 1940s got his mother to help him draw up a family tree which i still have and my mother and father both did another in the 1980s. Before that in the 1970s when I was a teenager I even wrote a lot of family history down from my mother. I then had very early DOS software for one family tree but that then became incompatible and then about 2015 - 17 I got online with the new systems for it and did as far as I want to go by about 2020 back to about 1700s on all sides. However I do realise not everyone finds it interesting. It is there for my children if they ever want it as is the same box of old family records/ papers - the parts I hold of those, passed down which can go to someone in the family when I die too - 2 boxes now.

When I was last into it I knew other people would find out it very dull, however, in many cases so tried not to foist it on people. I am interested in direct ancestors and still cross (checked again last week) the death of one I still cannot find - I think he may have died at sea as that was his job and another one married in the 1840s no record of marriage in state or church records which is annoying. I had the recent further look in case something new were out - Durham records online often does updates (the family is from NE England). It is just I have an almost near perfect record of every single one of the direct ancestors' birth, marriage and death certs since they came out in the 1830s so it is annoying I am missing about 2 of them. I also have a photo of 7 of my 8 great grandparents but not no. 7 who died about 1916 which is annoying. I have his wife and her 10 children on a lovely photo from about 1917 by which time he was dead but none of the husband.

I personally find it interesting - although to be fair I find history in general interesting, not just the history of my own family.

It's fine if people don't find it interesting, of course. But it's weird that your acquaintance felt so strongly about it that they went on a rant about it! It's not like your hobby is having any impact on them. They sound pretty rude.

There are plenty of hobbies and interests that other people have that I would find very dull/pointless, but if someone tells me that they (eg) love watching F1 racing or spotting trains, I'd probably say 'How did you get into that? Were you always interested in that kind of stuff?' or 'Oh, that's interesting - that's really never something I've quite understood. What is it that appeals to you about it?' or 'See, I really don't get F1/trainspotting myself, but I know loads of people love it, and I can definitely see why it's a great hobby if you're into [whatever]'. I wouldn't go on a rant and tell them their passion was a waste of time!

She was very rude to say that to you. Since you’re asking for opinions now though, I find it utterly dull and I find people who are very into researching their family tree can become quite feverish in their interest. I have a couple in my extended family. It’s great that it makes them happy but they seem to feel that everyone else in the family should be equally thrilled about their ‘discoveries.’

Family history isn't for everyone (it's definitely my kind of history), but there was no reason for her to be so rude about it. We've got our family history traced back to the 1500s, and some things are very interesting indeed.

I'd hit back with an equally damning rant about something she's interested in, tbh.

I don't care about my ancestors.
If anyone wants to research their relatives-great. But I don't want to hear anything about it, imagine having to listen to 'then Anne moved to a different village and had 15 kids and was married to a shoemaker, then..'
Excruciating.

I think it's interesting but haven't done much. I got a bit giddy looking on one of the sites and have a family tree but no idea if people are the right people.

I would love to do more but I have other hobbies which tend to get in the way.

Personally I find it very dull but if other people are interested then that’s fine . It’s a bit like those adverts that say things like ‘I discovered my great grandad put out fires in the war’ - my response to that would be so what , it wouldn’t make me proud or anything . I am however interested in history in a general way just not bothered about relating it to my family . The world would be a very boring place if we all liked the same things .

Personally I don’t care who I was related to 100 years ago because for me family is about the relationships you form rather than blood. But if you find it interesting then good for you, I wouldn’t be that rude about someone’s hobby, it’s not like you are harming anyone.

maybe something is going on for her with this reaction? For example my mum does a lot of family history research because she’s not good with emotions or relating to her own family so it can be upsetting for me to see how invested she is in a load of dead people but not her own kids.