We do family history research. We write family history reports and narratives along with our many other services. These tasks generally take us into the facts, figures, and statistics of a person or family. It is extremely valuable and important information. But it is information. It is not the story. It typically does not answer who was this person? Or how did this person live, think or feel, etc.? (We do that sort of work, too, inasmuch as we have or are able to find resources and also when it is appropriate.) As we have been on our current family history / US history trip, I have been listening (and sometimes eavesdropping, I suppose) and hearing people talking around us. What is the most common topic in their conversations? Of course, it is their family.
Listening to folks at other tables at a restaurant or nearby or in passing just as we are out and about,. Nearly always people are talking about their family. For example, at a restaurant in Williamsburg, VA we were seated in a back room where there was a good-sized touring party. These people were mostly maybe in their mid-sixties and older. It seemed like they met on the tour. We overheard some talking about their travels. But each short conversation we picked up, the people were talking about their kids or grandkids.
We spent a few nights in Charlottesville, VA. We went to the home of Thomas Jefferson on 3 July. While we were there we were reminded of the Independence Day Celebration & Naturalization Ceremony that was at Monticello on July 4. We got free tickets and scheduled the bus ride from the parking place at nearby Piedmont Virginia Community College. Near the end of the short ceremony, the judge asked the new citizens to share their feelings and comments. A few came to the microphone. I think nearly every person talked about family. You can hear them for yourself at the Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello YouTube channel
If you listen to people around you, you will hear others talking about the same things we all talk about. Certainly we talk about our day, what concerns us, what is in the news. But even then, as a rule or at least often, we are talking about these things with regard to what they mean to us and our family. Family is what people talk about. Family is what people think about. Family is what people care about. Family is what is important.
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