I love this blog post by Billy Coffey.  He says he’s not a genealogist, but in this post, he’s captured the essence of why many of us do this, search for this person, and then that one, hunt for this fact, or that, and try to find out who these ancestors of our truly are, and if we can, what they were like.

Billy Coffey captures most of the reasons why I do genealogy, and he says it better than I ever could.

Like Billy, I’m not looking for the rich and famous.  (I would enjoy finding just one, but I don’t think I will.)

Most of my recent ancestors were farmers, and my distant ancestors, on two sides, were people who left their home country in search of a place where they had the freedom of worship.  It is these everyday people, these people who climbed on a ship in search of freedom, these homesteaders, and farmers and farm wives, who bravely faced everyday hardships that I search for!

I don’t think anyone could say it better than Billy said in his blog post at BillyCoffey.com:

“Because I am the result of many moments and many decisions that mattered to people with whom I share a common bond. And those who come after me, my children and their children and theirs, will be the results of my own moments and decisions.”

I appreciated Billy putting into words at how I feel about my ancestors.

It reminded me that we’re all a part of the tapestry of history, the tapestry that living our everyday ‘nobody’ lives weaves each and every day.

Thank you, Billy.