I wondered whether we could inherit more than physical characteristics from our ancestors. There's too much missing information to do more than speculate, but I love feeling that my ancestors are somehow a part of me. Gwyneth Thompson writes from Ontario, Canada, that her husband, a social worker, is drawn to genealogy by his profession and she finds the hobby a logical connection for her accounting profession as well. George Waller at the University of Connecticut has many reasons for his pursuit of genealogy. One of them is that search for identity.
Genealogy replaces that sense of bonding with place, history and society.
Texan Anne Schmidt's entry into genealogy came by way of being obstinate. The most unusual path I've come across was that of a Nebraska septu agenarian who I met at a genealogical conference. Withdrawal pains were added to the lingering pain from his surgery and he often couldn't sleep, so he spent his nights doing genealogy. Eventually, he got beyond the pain, but he couldn't get beyond genealogy, which proved as addictive as the morphine. Copyright 1996 Tri-City Herald.