A secret little interest of mine is family history research. It appeals to two of my great loves - family and research. I honestly haven't done just about anything with it in recent years, but it does fascinate me. When I was working as a family history consultant (and a web salesperson, but I tend to repress that part) at Myfamily.com/Ancestry.com, I loved the certification process and learning how to better approach the research. At some point, the dozen or so family history reference books I have on my shelves as a result will come in handy again.
Because of my love for family history, I am totally geeked about the 2010 census. I haven't filled mine out yet, but I'm going to, joyfully. You should too. Immediately, it will help the government to be more aware of who all of us are so that we can get accurate representation. In 72 years, the general public will have access to it for personal and family research (1940 is released in 2 years!). You can read more about it here. Please fill it out and send it back! It was a thrill to find my paternal grandfather's name in the 1930 Census, just to see he was there.
Another thing I'm geeked about right now is the series "Who Do You Think You Are?" Sponsored by Ancestry.com, they're profiling the family history discoveries of various celebrities. You can watch it here. I'm all in favor of people learning more about their families, and for getting more people excited about it. (Ancestry.com insiders report ten times the amount of hits during the first episode.) Continuing my geekiness, I found David Tennant's (of Doctor Who and Harry Potter fame) episode from the British version of the show.
Family history. It rocks.
4 comments:
I'm excited about that show, too! And you'll be happy to know that we have successfully completed and sent in our 2010 census. :)
I am always a little surprised when people can't name their great-grandparents, so it's awesome that they're doing shows like that. It gets people excited, and that's the best thing!
Brett filled out our census form last night. But he wouldn't list me as Anglo-Saxon. Darn me fixing dinner and not getting to the form before him.
Amanda, have you joined the Facebook Fan Page for my start-up company? It's called The Ancestry Project, and our focus is on helping people tell their stories, and collecting those stories to help inspire more people to do the same. If you have any cool stories from your ancestors, it would be awesome to have you post them!
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