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| My first job is in a kitchen |
Too often in these modern times,
young adults are too busy with their own lives to make room for slower-paced
tasks. I am most certainly speaking for myself when I make this claim. I work
two jobs and fill my spare time with research, blogging, socializing, and similar
activities. Even as a genealogist, I often prefer the fast-paced,
forward-moving methods to the pain-staking and slow-paced ones that I save for
an occasional Saturday or Sunday.
Recently,
an event took place that got me rethinking my preference for the fast-paced methodology. As it is February, most people interested in genealogy know
of RootsTech, a major conference held in Salt Lake City, Utah this time each
year. My opportunity finally came as I registered for the 2015 event. Rootstech
facilitated a meeting I arranged with a cousin I had been corresponding with
for about a month already.
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| Ishmael Phillips |
Our common
ancestor is my fourth-great grandfather, Ishmael Foote Phillips. After looking
over the files in my computer I had been gathering sporadically over the past
three years, I concluded that Ishmael’s early years in England were severely
under-researched. I then reached out online to relatives who knew or had more
information and one cousin responded with more exuberance than I anticipated.
This wonderful
lady was a God-send to my present plight. While we were corresponding I had
already been conducting background research on the time period Ishmael Phillips
spent in England after being baptized into the early Mormon Church. (For more
on this story, check out my post on finding his baptism.) Over time,
we became more than correspondents with a similar interest in a distant
grandfather. Our shared appreciation and love for this man was only the
starting point.
On the
Sunday following RootsTech, I arranged to meet with my cousin in her hotel
room. What I got from that visit was more than I had bargained for. Not only
did she share the findings of her 32-years worth of research, she also told me
stories about how she found the information, and she told me about her own
family. We truly had a heart-to-heart that many relatives should have with
their own family members more often than they do.
Not only
did I find a cousin to stay in touch with, her experiences help me to
appreciate more the antiquated methods of research. I too have done my share of scanning microfilms and digging
through dusty old manuscripts in archives, but this was her main form of
research. The information she had to show was the results of hours of true archive and library hunting. Her interest would
envelop more than Ishmael, but she also took interest in his own family: his
brothers and sisters, his parents and grandparents. As a result, she has compiled
significant information for the American descendants of the Phillips on their
British ancestors.
To my
cousin and people like her who labor so diligently in putting together the information
she has, I say thank you. I will treasure the information you have shared and
use it to add to my own. you also help me to better plan research in the future. From your cousin, God bless you.
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| She treated me to dinner |
