Family History vs. Genealogy

So why do I call this blog 'Family History Guy' and not 'Genealogy Guy'? Well first of all I am a guy, but the word genealogy has never been my favorite.

With the suffix -logy the word has an air of scientific inquiry, but also adds the connotation of being cold; just worried about names, dates, places of birth, death, and so forth. Nothing warm and fuzzy here. No place for grandma's secret cookie recipe, no room for cultural traditions, no places for stories.

That of course, is a big fat lie. Genealogy is all those things and more, but Family History sounds so much more...well...family oriented. Here is the place for grandma's secret cookie recipe, here is the place for cultural traditions, here is the place for stories about your dad's dog wanting to take a ride in the boat.

So there it is, while I admit there is really no denotative difference between the two, I use the term family history because it sounds more familial. I also love the word history because it has contained within it, the word STORY.

Stories are fantastic. Stories hold a special place in our hearts because it is in stories that the past comes to life; loved ones, though gone, can remind us of the past. Stories make the people and places of the past immortal. Stories connect us in a way that a birth certificate or a marriage record just cannot.

It is through stories that we really turn our hearts to our ancestors and allow their hearts to turn to us. We can remember them gallantly colonizing the a new world, blazing trails in the American West, fighting for freedom on foreign shores, or fighting for justice closer to home. These are things that endure. These are the things that a thousand years from now will really matter.

An example. Some in my family (the Easts) were connected to the Underground Railroad in and around Vandalia, Michigan. I had learned of their willingness to sacrifice their own freedom for the freedom of others and of their actions during the infamous Kentucky Raid of 1847 (see this site for more information:https://urscc.org/1847_Kentucky_Raid.html). Not long after my oldest son was learning about the Underground Railroad in school, his hand shot up, and beaming with pride he was able to tell of his family's role in that noble effort. My son's heart was turned to his 'father' that day and now  that story is a part of his-story.