Open Thread Thursday, The Genealogy Experience

I have thought about this all day.  First, I had read Lynn's post at The Armchair Genealogist about "The moment you knew...  Then I read Thomas's post at Open Thread Thursday, and decided I would give the topic a whirl.

My reason for collecting family stories.

I was enjoying the puzzle experience of finding the pieces as I started researching my family in the 80's.  I loved solving the mystery.  It was exciting to fill in the blanks as my aunts and cousins shared family information with me.  

Then one day I looked at my surnames list, and realized it had gone beyond names, I felt a connection with those names.  I knew where they had come from, where they lived, what they did, and who their children were.  Now it was turning into, why did they do this? What was it that drew them from other countries or across the US from one state to another state.  The story within the story is what I am wanting to achieve. 

I think eventually I would like to write a historical fiction about one or two of my ancestors as they seemed to have an interesting time, place, and connections.

I began to look at my research and discovered I was doing a terrible job of documentation, sourcing, and citing, not to mention keeping track of all my papers.  It was time to bring about a change. I attribute the becoming acutely aware to Geneabloggers community and twitter.  I became a FamilySearch missionary about 2 1/2 years ago.  I found myself thrown into first looking at the new.FamilySearch.org and the mandate to the LDS members to clean up their trees.  This brings a big sigh out of me, because there are so many things you can add a different opinion on but cannot change. I was brought to a great awareness of do it right the first time.  As the Ward Family History Consultant and I assisted the Family History Teacher in teaching that which had eluded me in the beginning. 

Realizing I was inadequate in formal education regarding genealogy, I enrolled in several online classes through ProGen, and now participating in a study group mentored by Valerie of  Family Cherished  and Toni of Tonia's Roots. What I am hoping to come away with is a mindset that will be more organized and focused than I have been, resulting in well documented and clear family history for me and any I will be helping. 

I love genealogy. I love my ancestors and the Hero's ancestors.  I crave to learn their stories. The bottom line is I want to be a better genealogist. Yes, pretty much that is me.