Genealogists at Charlestown and Oak Crest Are Fascinated With Family Roots
By Danielle Rexrode
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE
A number of “detectives” at Charlestown and Oak Crest are conducting an investigation. There wasn’t an accident and no crime had been committed.
These sleuths are actually genealogists digging up their family roots.
“People have different reasons for researching their family history,” says Annarose Bowers, who heads Oak Crest’s genealogy group. “Some people are interested in tracing their roots back to see where they came from and others are just curious about the past. My husband wanted to figure out how he was related to some of our family members, so I took a correspondence course with the National Genealogy Society. Once you get into it and you find something interesting it’s easy to get hooked,” she says.
Originally genealogy only concerned the ancestry of rulers and nobles and was used to demonstrate the legitimacy of claims to wealth and power. But today most people aren’t out to prove they are heirs to a throne, they’re just trying to find out where they came from. In fact, genealogy is touted as the second most popular hobby in the United States, after gardening. It is believed that more than 80 million Americans are actively researching their ancestry.
Al Blackburn of Charlestown began his research in the 1980’s when he took a course at Howard County Community College.
“As part of the course we took trips to the National Archives and the Library of Congress to do research,” says Al. “I enjoy working with all sorts of puzzles and genealogy is like one big puzzle.”