GHL Blog

Having relatives, and even distant relatives, who have done extensive research on your family is definitely wonderful to have. Many families often have 1 person or a group of people that have written about the family at some point in the past and that information may have passed down through the generations and landed in your lap. I’ve had distant relatives on both sides of the families that have written up family histories. It’s a great find. But at the same time it should not signify an end of the road in researching that family and there are a few reasons for that.

In 1 branch of my family, a distant relative hired a professional researcher way before I was even born. The hired researcher found a lot of great information, especially considering the internet did not exist at the time (1950′s). When I finally connected with my distant relatives here in NC, I was so excited to receive a copy of the manuscript written around 50 years ago. I used that information as a guide to gather all the documents I needed when I hit a brick wall. Turns out, there is a good possibility that my earliest American ancestor from the line may not have married the person that everyone said he married. Now, it is so ingrained with this branch of the family that they were married because no one had researched it for themselves. Today – they all take what was written as fact. It is important to keep in mind that written family histories, whether published or not, are not primary records.

Perhaps the most important reason to research for yourself is just the thrill of it. If you’ve been bitten by the genealogy bug, there is a great satisfaction of finding records for yourself. Even if your relatives have cited down to the archival call number, there is a feeling of joy and excitement at seeing documents written during your ancestors lives, maybe even seeing their signatures.

All of that said, the Government & Heritage Library has many family history books in our genealogy collection. Come take a look at what we have!