Tretower Genealogy Research

Over the last month, I have been made aware of just how bad stress in a person’s life can taint the joy they have for the things they enjoy to do.  Sadly, stress from finances, jobs, personal family problems and other things can keep a person so tied up, they have no time or even desire to do what they normally enjoy, such as genealogy.

That has been my case this past month.  Job stress at Christmas time and continuing into the new year has forced me to focus my time and energies on survival instead of hobbies.  It is a sad, sad commentary of the world that in spite of our advanced civilization, in spite of all the proud, boastful scientific discoveries that have been made, as well as the claims of spiritual and philosophical enlightenment, our world is simply getting more and more chaotic and troublesome.  People are hurting and are stressed out.  You can see the result of the stress of the world even in areas connected with Genealogy.  Genealogical societies are dwindling in membership.  People who begin their genealogical research are doing so without a lot of information on their family, as either families are broken apart mulitple times, or else the stressed out members of the family have no time to recount stories of their family history to the younger generations.

Many modern genealogists are cold, “just the facts” sort of researchers, focused in the modern way of doing things.  They miss out on the warmth of family stories and the joy of a connection with history.  It is a sad statement of what our world has become.  I imagine if you looked at Genealogists in the 1960s and 1970s and compare them to today’s bunch, you’d find a lot less depth to their research.  Sure, the Internet and computers have revolutionized the hobby, but sadly, they have done so in a world where people are becoming more and more robot-like and more and more stressed out.  You used to hear in the mid 20th century how by the year 2000 we would all work about 3 days a week and the rest of the time would be one big weekend.  Now, 9 years after 2000, we are working more hours and are more stressed then ever.  The folly of man.  How much of our lives are we missing by worrying and stressing.  How little we will be able to share with our children and grandchildren, as we have sacrificed our lives for “The American dream.”

–Eddie Davis