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 have to admit I pretty much share your friend's views, but I wouldn't say what she said to anyone, let alone a friend! That's just rude.

I'm interested in history and social history in a general sense, so e.g. I'd be moved by reading about the experiences of a young soldier and his family during WW1... but it wouldn't make any difference if I happened to be related to him. Beyond the grandparents who I remember, and perhaps their immediate family who they've spoken to me about, these people don't mean anything to me, or rather they don't mean more than any other fellow human.

Maybe a bit of a tangent, but there are a couple of things that do slightly annoy me about how people refer to this stuff. Firstly when they talk as if it's remarkable that they're descended from some historical figure from the 1500s or whenever. That guy's probably got tens of thousands of descendants by now, it's not really that special.

And then when people try to infer meaning about themselves and their own lives from their genealogy. I heard someone on the radio once attempt to bolster her working class hero credentials by going on about being from a "long line of potters". (It's not really a line, is it. It's a sort of upside down triangle that's ever expanding the further back you go, from which you have chosen the line that best suits your point. There are probably just as many architects or doctors if you look in a different place.). And then there are those who say they're from such-and-such "stock" and that's why they're sturdily built and don't take any shit and so on. Total nonsense.

And after all that, surely there are a not insignificant percentage of people whose paternity isn't what they think it is. You only need one of those in the male line as you trace back, and nobody previous would be related to you at all

Each to their own though...

I love it. Spend a bit of time researching. Best thing I did was take a DNA test.
i am making folders, so that it is more organised.
I don’t go on and on about it. Maybe mention it occasionally.
I do enjoy talking to others if I find they have similar interests.
In Australia it is especially fun to find Australian Royalty … convicts.

babies born as they say in our family the wrong side of the blanket!

What does this mean please?

P.S. just to bore you some more, I have a distant connection to Abraham Lincoln.

It's not for me, but that doesn't mean others can't enjoy it.

I'm sure plenty of people would find my hobbies boring!

It means babies born out of wedlock, to an unmarried mother (sometimes with a married-to-someone-else father)

It always amazes me how my dsis is really fascinated by our family history and she is the one who does all the research and spends hours on it. I find it strange because she is also child-free by choice and it's a weird combination being so invested in your family and its roots and what an ancestors did whilst also choosing to be the end of your line, never wanting to be a future ancestor. I enjoy listening to the snippets she has found by I could be any more bored by the thought of doing the research myself.
I'd never tell anyone their hobbies are boring ones though, just because it doesn't interest me. That's just rude.
The only boring hobby I think is watching tv as it's completely passive. Just sitting there doing nothing except staring at a screen seems utterly dull to me. At least your hobby involves you actively doing something

I love it, it’s my main hobby and I spend as many free hours as I can chipping away at it. I like puzzles generally, and I’ve always thought it’s one big logic puzzle to figure out how everyone links together! I also quite like organising things which probably helps. My Nan’s side centres around one particular town and I love figuring out how all the branches were connected. I find it fascinating to learn about their lives as I generally find history interesting. DNA tests have added an extra layer to it all! I’ve been going for about 20 years now and doubt I’ll ever stop.

I tried it and found it pretty boring.
It was a lot of birth / marriage/ death registers and some addresses. Nothing more about the people. So after a while it just became quite uninteresting.
A lot of the time you're not quite 100% sure you've got the right person, once you're a few generations back. A lot of folk had the same name.

I like general history, with stories and artefacts. Bit more to it.

I love family stories about the relatives I knew and liked. I adored my grandfather. As my mother gets older (and notices that I’m older!) she shares more stories about her childhood and my grandfather. Her older cousins share more of their childhoods with her, which includes stories about my grandfather from before she was born, and my mother passes them on to me. I can pass those on in the future. The kind of person he was, how he related to others and how they related to him and the experiences that shaped him. That matters to me. Official records don’t. They give basic information that people were obliged to share and it isn’t always correct. I know there is at least one person in my family of my grandparents generation (long dead now) who has different parents to the ones on their birth certificate. People just sorted things out within the family. No one has told the family genealogists.

Not for me, I'm interested in those folk I can actually remember from my childhood but before that then not at all, but each to his own

I find it very interesting, but from experience it’s mostly younger people who don’t - they tend to find it more interesting once they’re getting on a bit!

Meh, it's probably boring if you're not interested but all hobbies are. I wouldn't want to listen to people drone on about something I have no interest in, like cricket, or gaming, or cycling myself!

I've been researching my family history since I was a teenager and only bring it up if someone seems interested. I find the research element the best part.

That's incredibly rude. It's perfectly normal to have a hobby like this. I find it fascinating. Some people should speak before thinking.

I would find it really dull but I wouldn't say that to you in the context of that conversation!

Some time ago, my elderly mum spent a year tracing her family lines (4, in the end, right back to the early 17th century). Because one line was originally nobility, I intend to carry on and see how far back I can go once we’ve retired.

It’s completely fascinating. The people (some notable/well known) and stories she unearthed were something else. We’d had no idea.

Just a pity we didn’t get the castle in the Highlands 😁

It's absolutely fascinating and I am extremely lucky that a relative has been tracing back our family history. They have researched back to Cromwell's times so far, found property that is still standing that ancestors used to live in.

I think it is often pretty dull - but you know I’m guessing you wouldn’t share my interests either. I wouldn’t have said to you I found it dull, I’d have tried to change the subject or walked away if you went on.

I think it's really interesting. But equally if I didn't someone mentioned it in passing to me as something they are interested in, I wouldn't go on a rant about how dull it is - how rude of her!

I find it fascinating
People have often said to me "you don't have white features"
My mums MIL didn't speak to her and it was "because she is black" (she wasn't)

It was only in doing the family history I could track back where the features were from, why that side of the family is so dark olive, where my cousins very curly hair comes from etc etc

If your interested in it, then your interested.
It does not matter what anyone thinks.

I think that it’s interesting. If someone that I was speaking with said that this was their hobby I would want to know more.

I’m not sure that it’s the hobby for me as I would be too worried about the skeletons in my closet.

The OP is asking if other people find it interesting or not, or don't think about it.

I find it interesting, but my great grandparents came here as refugees from Belgium in my great great grandfathers fishing boat, and were among the relatively few Belgians who remained in the UK.

I've not done any research really, just googled the surname, but one of my great uncles was a witness to the aftermath of a murder that remained unsolved, so that was quite interesting as well.

I am interested in history, but more into ancient history and prehistory.

@EilonwyWithRedGoldHair my great grandparents came here as refugees from Belgium in my great great grandfathers fishing boat

MN is possibly not the place to mention that you arrived on a small boat 😂