Making Friends with Genealogy Party tricks
How I make friends and other party tricks
If you love genealogy you love research.
If you love research you should only use your powers for good.
Here’s how I use mine.
Nerds, unite!
One thing about me, I’m a nerd. A big one. I willingly received degrees in biology and chemistry b/c I liked doing research. I hated balancing chemical equations, but I loved researching to prove a hypothesis. While I no longer work in a lab, I do occasionally don a pocket protector and tapped up blue light blocking glasses. That’s b/c all of my time is spent pouring over online archives and databases of historic records. I really love it. If I have free time, that’s what I’m doing.
I’ll tell everyone I know about some interesting thing I discovered in a family tree. This comes into full effect at parties. Recently I was at a dinner party and a friend shared their upcoming wedding plans, I asked if the date had any specific significance? Was it the date they met? The date of their first date? etc. Nope, the bride replied, just a date we picked b/c it seemed convenient. It took all I had to restrain myself from sharing a cool pattern I see in a lot of trees. In fact, it took so much restraint I couldn’t stop myself.
“A lot of the trees I work on have repeating dates of significance from generation to generation.” I blurted out before my stop talking muscles could kick in. “I recently worked on a tree where the date the 2nd great grandparents immigrated to America, Sept 8, 1881, was repeated over and over again. It was either the date of birth for someone in the tree, a wedding date, the date on a death certificate, the date an award was received, the date of graduation, etc. Almost every generation after the 2nd great grandparents had a milestone event occur on Sept 8.”
This definitely grabbed the attention of some of the dinner guest who asked me questions, like “did the family know the 2nd great grandparents immigrated on that day?” Nope, I replied. It was either destiny or a complete coincidence.
I know from my nerdy science background that there have been studies done that show trauma carries forward on specific molecules on our DNA for several generations. In this example, mice are given a mild shock on their foot every time a specific scent (for simplicity, let’s say it’s the smell of cherries) is pumped into their enclosure. Take note, it wasn’t painful shock, more annoying. Generations later, the children of the shocked mice are inherently sensitive to the smell of cherries. They were never shocked but there are molecules on their DNA that pass that trauma down.
So, maybe there is something to the dates of important event, or dare I say, joy molecules that are passed down too! Maybe we are inherently acting on joy that is built into our DNA! What an exciting thing to think about.
Back to the party
Once I have everyone’s attention with my AMAZING genealogy research skills (If you pictured the host turning the music down off, everyone putting their forks down, all chewing and swallowing coming to an abrupt halt, all eyes on me, eyes wide with curiosity — you’d be picturing things exactly as they happen. Pinky swear.) It isn’t long before someone shares something wild from their own tree. “My Mom said I had a great great uncle, or something like that, who was beat up by all the local women in town.” Typically this information is shared with only lose facts, there may be a single piece of accurate information, if that, but that is all I need to hear! Party trick commence!
I’ll ask a few questions, break out my phone, and work to find the event in great detail.
In this case the story got a little convoluted over the years. The women didn’t attack her great great uncle. Instead, he was in the midst of opening a “gallon store” in town. The women were opposed to the store, so they waited for him to head into town for supplies, and while he was gone, they literally tore down his store, leaving nothing but ruins.
One of the best things about finding this information is setting the story straight. One of the next best things is finding the articles and more so the family can print and display them. Both make it possible for future generations to know the story and refer to as often as they’d like. I have also learned so much about historic events from doing this, like the time I learned about the explosion of the Alum Chine in 1913. The Alum Chine was a boat carrying dynamite on the Patapsco river in Maryland. It exploded and a nearby tugboat, captained by the great grandfather of a party goer, played a big part in the rescue.
This is my party trick - it helps me make friends. Every family tree has stories like this. Over time they get a little wonky with the details and the facts, but they are out there, waiting to be uncovered and brought back to life.
Do you have a wild story from your family tree that you don’t know the specific details of? What do you know of it? Share in the comments!