When a person goes to research their family background, they find they have two ways of doing so. Genealogy is the gathering of names, dates, and places. Collecting the family history is when a person uses the information collected during their genealogical research and builds on it by adding additional information about each person that is found. Why would a person want to gather either type of information? What benefits come with doing so? 

Trace the Family’s Path

One can browse around here, one thing that may be learned is the family’s journey to its current location. Wouldn’t it be interesting to know that one side of the family came through Europe to arrive in America, while the other side came through Africa? They ended up in the same place but saw different things on their way to doing so.

This may be the incentive that is needed to visit new places around the globe, as who wouldn’t want to stand where their ancestors once did? Although things have likely changed since they spent time in these places, it’s still interesting to walk where they did. 

Find New Relatives

A person might be surprised to learn about some distant relatives they didn’t know they had. For example, Stand Up and Be Counted: Native Americans in the Federal Census reports Native Americans weren’t counted in censuses conducted prior to 1840. Even after 1840, they weren’t identified as Native Americans, but as people of color. 

It wasn’t until 1860 that Native Americans…