William Penn Life, 2017 (52. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

2017-07-01 / 7. szám

Tiber's Take with Tibor Check, Jr.

How deep do your roots go?

NOW THAT I'M OUT OF LAW SCHOOL and no longer hunting or striving for that "dream job," I've finally been able to redevelop some hobbies. Ever since my sopho more year of high school, it seemed my attention had been divided between school, work and extra-curriculars. Now that I'm just working in a job that I love, I realize that I suddenly have more time than anticipated. This has enabled me to pick up old hobbies and discover some new ones. I'd like to think I'm a "Renaissance man," but I haven't quite reached that distinction, yet.

Anyway, one of my new hobbies is genealogy. For those who don't know what genealogy is, it is the study of one's personal history; or as the academics say, it is the "study and tracing of lines of descent." I call it a new hobby, but I've really been interested in the subject since I was in middle school. Back then, my interest was a minor one, but it has stuck with me.

Of the various hobbies and kindahobbies that I had, genealogy was the one that was put on the back burner for the longest time, and for good reason: genealogy is time consuming. Since I've picked it up in a more serious way eight months ago, I've spent probably a few hundred hours here and there on the project...and I have barely scratched the surface. Genealogy is also expensive; there is only so much you can do for free. You can interview relatives, run queries on a search engine, and visit the local library, but that only takes you so far. To truly see how deep your roots go, it takes time and money.

So far, most of my research has been conducted on Ancestry.com, an online database that helps you curate and organize the information you find. There is a lot of information in their databases, which can include not only text but also photos and images of documents.

I get a funny feeling when I see a great-grandparent's ticket for crossing the Atlantic or their immigration documents, knowing that so many years ago, my flesh and blood were filling out those papers, and that all that would eventually lead to me being born. It's interesting to see how fragile the fact of your birth is, how much had to go right in order for you to even be born.

If my great-grandfather sailed to Canada instead of the United States when he left Hungary in 1913, then there is a good chance that I would not be writing to you today.

Each ancestor is a strand in a tapestry, and it is fascinating what you find when you begin to pull on the individual threads to see where they go.

For example, my sixth great-grandfather founded

6 0 July 2017 0 WILLIAM PENN LIFE