Question: What things go together?
I hadn’t really thought about it very much until Cathy Meder-Dempsey wrote about family heirlooms. I am the proud owner of three antique quilts, but I also like to quilt myself, even though I’m not much more than a beginner in that arena. That brought me to the idea of hobbies and the kinds of hobbies that genealogists enjoy when they aren’t working on the family history and I came to the realization that many of them are loosely tied to the concept of “home.”
Think about it. Just the subject of quilting. Not only are there bloggers out there who describe themselves as avid participants of both family history and quilting and/or they write about both topics. I even found a Genea-Quilters group on Facebook, which I joined. I noticed that I have several friends who were already members. I teach a monthly get-together of ladies in the Welcome Club. Four of them are also in my local quilting group.
Minnie Mae Williams’ YoYo Quilt
Travel is another popular hobby. While not all destinations are related to one’s own family history, how many of us have been fortunate enough to make one or more trips to an ancestral home? My visits to both Calais, Maine, birthplace of my mother, grandparents, one great grandparent and one 2x great grandparent and to Copenhagen, Denmark will forever be etched in my mind.
Rosenborg Castle, Copenhagen
Johannes Jensen Stationed Here, 1840s
I have read many posts about bloggers’ visits to family homes and homelands, each fascinating because it brings our ancestors to life and lets us experience a piece of their daily lives.
Next, most genealogists also seem to be avid readers, whether it be fiction or related to research. My husband doesn’t think I’m much of a reader, but that is because non-fiction is my preference. He tends to read fiction to relax and non-fiction when he needs to accomplish a task. I prefer non-fiction for both information and relaxation.
A favorite book to sit and browse over the holidays was Robert Brenner’s book, Christmas Revisited, which is about holiday collectibles.
That leads me to the last hobby – antiquing. Let’s face it, if we are into genealogy, we also like old things. Having family heirlooms is wonderful, like Grandmother’s silver tea set, but. . . .
Hard to See Tea Set
many of us not only enjoy browsing, buying and/or collecting old things, we’ve even been known to rescue others’ family mementos with the intent of reuniting them with descendants.
Like I said, our interests all seem to have the common theme of “home” and that is a good thing.
Can you think of any other hobbies that many of us seem to share?