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Then and Now
by Val Atkinson
Article ID: 8, First Published: June 2004I have what I consider a sensible approach to life:
• I don’t like to do anything unless I know how to do it beforehand.
• I’m not keen on going anywhere if I don’t know the way.
• I like to be sure and in possession of the facts.
• I am fixed in my purpose.
• I like to be prepared with as much knowledge as possible before taking on a challenge.
• I try to avoid mistakes, time wasting, and aimless wandering.
• I like to be right first time
My friends sometimes call me VERA: (Very efficient and rather annoying!)
If you’re the same, then you might have asked yourself as I have:
• What happens if there’s no one to show us what to do, or we haven’t a map?
• What happens when things don’t go according to ‘Plan A’?
• Do we wait and achieve nothing, or step forward bravely into the unknown?
No matter how prepared we might be, genealogy is a step into the unknown, and the tackling of new problems on virgin ground.
Always remember that for some pursuits we need to learn proper techniques. We need to watch the people who know, then do as they do. The key to knowledge is to watch an expert and imitate.
And so we come to the first time I went researching:
I didn’t have a clue, but I was totally buoyed up with the two foundation qualities that count in genealogy:
ENTHUSIASM and the DESIRE TO FIND.
They gave me a confidence that had no sensible basis, and they’ve never left me.
Over the years I’ve observed, imitated and added knowledge, organisation, system and order, while I’ve learned line upon line, and precept upon precept.
In between there’s been an incredible amount of stumbling and bumbling around.
Don’t tell anyone but:
• I once lost a microfiche page I’d just been looking at, and I couldn’t find it anywhere. I toyed with the idea of quietly walking away, and letting the archivist discover the loss later, but my best self took over, and I admitted what had happened. We eventually found it mis-filed.
• The first few times I searched burials, I kept seeing the surname 'CHILD’ and was amazed at the number of people of the same name dying at the same time. I mentioned this to a friend who told me the entries were for stillborn children, and their surnames were in the previous column.
I began research in the grand old tradition of looking at the actual parish registers, back in the days when microfilms were unknown, and genealogists were few, and considered as odd as train spotters!
I think of those days with nostalgia and longing. They were a glorious experience.
Don’t tell anyone but:
• The first time I was confronted with a microfilm reader to view parish records, I thought ‘end of volume’ meant ‘end of film’, and I was so frustrated at not finding the records that were supposed to be there. I tried the patience of the archivists that day!
• An automatic reader once ‘ran away’ with me and the film ended up as fronds all over the place.
• I once dropped a box of microfiche. They fan out on the floor so beautifully, don’t they?
Genealogy is about:
• Never being ready for what you have to do: just do it and that makes you ready!
• Not minding when you’re wrong: ancestors have a habit of leading descendants in the wrong direction.
• Not being perfect all the time: why should we be different from our ancestors?
• Making mistakes and learning from them: don’t go down the same wrong track twice.
• Facing new challenges and rising to them: no one can make you feel inferior without your own permission.
• Learning new skills and sharing them: genealogy is an ‘open shop’.
• Saying ‘I don’t know’ and finding out: stick to the task till it sticks to you!
• Nurturing and supporting newcomers: think on your personal ‘fiche’ and ‘film’ experiences.
• Devising a working system and using it: Genealogy is a ‘House of Order’.
• Having adventures when you ‘don’t know the way’: step forward bravely into the unknown.
• Progressing through practice and dogged determination: exploration is the name of the game.
• Sharpening your mind on problems: become incisive.
• Capitalising on your ENTHUSIASM and DESIRE TO FIND: transform them into reality.
• Having glorious experiences of discovery: transform the unknown into the known.
When thinking of the past and your ancestors, remember that:
• Death is but a pause in the scheme of things.
• You are there to bridge a gap.
• You are the bridge builder between then and now.
• Personal bridges are the ones that link.
