Have you gotten to the point where your favorite hobby, genealogy, has become boring? This can happen with any activity that you spend too much time doing. Instead of quitting, forever, you could try one of these ideas to make genealogy exciting once again.
People naturally want to spend as much time as possible on whatever their favorite hobby happens to be. This can bring a person hours upon hours of enjoyment. Eventually, though, even a favorite hobby can “lose its spark” and become boring. What can you do when you are bored with genealogy? Try some of these ideas!
Take a break! Spending too many hours doing the same thing, the same way, can make almost anything feel tedious and dull. If you are at the point where the thought of working on your genealogy research has filled you with the same sense of dread that many people feel about going back to work on Monday morning, it is time to take a break.
Stop doing genealogy for a few days, or maybe a week. How long should your break be? One day, you will find that you really miss working on your family tree. That’s the time to jump back into genealogy.
Do something with all those photos. There is so much you can do! Scan them into your computer, so you have a digital copy. Pick out some especially meaningful photos and go shopping for the perfect frames. Get a few photos professionally framed so you can send them to your relatives as gifts.
Use iMovie to make a video of a bunch of old family photos that are from the same event or that tell a story. Make an empty wall in your home into a gigantic family tree, with a photo representing each relative. The possibilities are endless!
Write down those family stories. Many families have stories that are passed down through the generations. There are probably a couple that you have heard so often that you know them by heart.
Take the time to write them down before you forget some of the smaller details. Other topics could include stories about how a relative or ancestor met his or her spouse, what the inspiration was for baby names in the family, or stories about a relative’s military experiences. These are the types of stories that future generations will treasure. It will help them to “get to know” ancestors whom they cannot meet in person.
Image by Artdecodude on Flickr