Weighing in on Costs and Benefits

When you consider the cost of researching, writing, and sharing family stories and histories, do you also consider the larger benefits?

Yes, it will cost our time. Frustration negotiating learning curves. Payments for software, hardware, training, research tools, certified copies of vital records, supplies, printing, mailing, and more.

But what benefits can we expect for our investment? Very few people will earn monetary rewards for their efforts. But many will reap riches a thousand-fold because investing our time and resources affects us—and others—in ways we have never considered. Or may never see in our lifetimes.

What might some of those benefits include?

• While overcoming inertia, lack of confidence, reluctance, and aversion to research and/or writing, will you become the fortunate woman who better understands the humanity and spirit of your GGGrandfather?
  
• Are you the puzzle nerd who will sort through records, information, and stories about your ancestors? Do you put their lives in the context of the time and place in which they lived so you can paint a picture of them with words? In doing so, might you gain a better picture of who they were? And who you are? And who your descendants might become?
  
• As you evaluate newly gathered facts and stories about your long-deceased mother, could you be the man who considers your own adult experiences and then give more grace to yourself? And to the memory of your mother?
  
• During a tough time, are you like the young father who remembers reading one of your family’s stories about overcoming hardships, and then decides you, too, can survive your current difficult circumstances?
  
• Will your daughter read a story about her GGGrandmother who advised, “If you hear a bump in the night, get up and check it out,” and for the rest of your daughter’s life, she gets up to check out any bumps in the night instead of pulling the covers over her head in fear?
  
• Will you be among the lucky grandparents who strengthen your connection with your 10-year-old grandchild who asks for help to complete a three-generation family tree for a fourth-grade assignment?
  
• Will your niece read a story about your grandfather’s sisters, the “Frame Family” girls, which in your family is shorthand for “spunky, strong, and capable”? As your niece becomes a woman, will she believe her blood and DNA, indeed her very essence, is predisposed to being spunky, strong, and capable?
  
• Can you envision some relatives—two hundred years from now—finding in their family’s papers an old document that gives them insights into their forefathers who fought in the Revolutionary War?
  
• If you can interview your great-aunt, will you be the woman who forms a bond with her, while also learning more about your GGgrandparents? Likewise, while being interviewed about her parents and grandparents, will your great-aunt feel joy and worth in sharing her memories—and form a stronger relationship with you?
  
• Browsing shelves in a historical society, will a researcher find your family story which helps him write an article or book that will influence future readers in positive ways he—and you—could never imagine?
  
• After scanning citations in your family history, will a genealogist pivot her research and in doing so finds documents that help her understand her own family’s story?
  
• When you consider the generations of family members and others you will reach and influence, will your short-term investments be worth yours—and their—rich long-term benefits?

Considering researching, writing, and sharing your family stories and histories:

• What additional general categories of costs have you incurred—or investments you have you made?
• What additional general or specific benefits have you reaped?
• What other benefits can you perceive?