- Tap resources while they’re still around.
People who are alive today who can give you answers about your ancestors may not be around tomorrow. Having a living source is the greatest asset – especially if that source has a keen memory. Document today while your relatives are still around and lucid enough to tell you their stories and tell you who-is-who in that family album.
- Prepare ground work for your kids.
While they may not care about their roots now, they might one day. Your investigation may bear fruit way down the line, and will certainly be helpful when your kids go through your albums trying to identify the strangers in the photos. It’s the kind of volunteer work you might really enjoy. - Re-connect family.
Today’s on-line genealogy sites provide a platform for a family social network, to remind you about your cousins’ birthdays and anniversaries. It brings families closer and back into contact. This is a different side of building your family tree. Some people love this feature, while others are interested only in the ancestral history. Take from it what works for you. - Connect with extended family.
My research has brought me into contact with a great number of really wonderful people who I otherwise would never have met. Be forewarned that there will be those cousins you discover who are unresponsive. They may be too busy or simply disinterested. Let it go. Others will respond, and there is something intangible but very special about finding and clicking with a third or fifth cousin you never knew existed. - Pay homage to your ancestors.
In the course of my research I uncovered many family members (even near-entire branches of families) who were lost in the Holocaust. Building a family tree places your relatives who perished in the context of their family – their parents, their siblings, their cousins, and their children and whoever survived. It documents their place in history and confirms that they existed. It’s a forceful, factual statement to confront those whose objective was total obliteration of families.
