Every year I invest four to six weeks, usually from mid-November to the end of December, dabbling in the intriguing world of genealogy and family history. The compound word, genealogy, is derived from the Greek terms for “descent” (genea) and “knowledge” (logos): in other words, it’s all about gaining knowledge of one’s ancestry, whether as a hobby or a more serious, perhaps even professional, occupation. The advances in technology, especially searchable online archives and easy-to-use genealogy software have put genealogy within the reach of anyone who has an interest in their family roots. The largest portal of genealogical links on the internet is Cyndi’s List where over 255,000 websites can be accessed by those exploring the vast continent of online genealogical resources.

My favorite genealogy software is Legacy Family Tree, although it only runs on a Windows platform and I left Microsoft behind several years ago to return to my first love, the Macintosh computer; however, I have retained an old Dell Pentium III laptop for my annual excursion into the world of online census records, obituaries, vital records (birth, death, and marriage), newspaper archives, land deeds, and a host of other source material. Although I use Legacy on a Windows laptop to record the fruit of my research, I use a Mac Mini with a 22-inch widescreen to search the growing online genealogical libraries at Ancestry.com (paid subscription) and FamilySearch.org (free). Ancestry’s “Annual World Deluxe Membership” is quite expensive, $299 annually, but I get around that by using their pay-by-the-month subscription ($29.95) combined with a 14-day free trial that’s often available each year. This gives me complete access to all U.S. and U.K. census records, newspapers, military enlistment records, and a two hundred million names that other people have researched and chosen to share with other members. My genealogical habit costs me $29.95 per year…not bad, I think.

In the summer of 2007, my wife and I took a three-hour ferry trip across the Irish Sea and a two-hour journey by automobile, where I eventually found myself standing in The National Archives of Ireland in Dublin. My surname, like so many Americans, has its original roots in Ireland. There in that hallowed place that many genealogists only dream about, I consulted (for free) with an Irish genealogist about my surname and how to proceed in finding the exact location of my third great-grandfather, Lawrence Lawler, who emigrated to Marshall County, Tennessee, through the port of Charles Town (Charleston), South Carolina, around 1800. And I couldn’t believe my ears when this expert told me that my best research could be done in the United States because, as he put it, “They have a lot more Irish records in the USA than we do here in Ireland.” Just my Irish luck, I guess.

So it’s that time of year once again! You may be curious why I only work on genealogy for a few weeks each year; and I would have to admit that genealogy is so attractive, so compelling, and so fulfilling that I would do nothing else if given half a chance. It can easily become an obsession, as so many people could probably testify, and right now I don’t have that kind of time. Limited as it is, I now have 4,500 persons in my current family tree and, hopefully, I’ll add a few hundred more in the next six weeks. When retirement comes, you won’t find me on the golf courses of Florida, but rather sitting at my computer or visiting some obscure cemetery or taking in the musty smells of ancient marriage records in one of my favorite genealogical libraries.