Diane, I am not going to blast you for your opinions but do you think that your observation about the “hobby’ as it has been commonly known for as long as I have been working with genealogy the past 30-years, is a parade passing us by? That those of the same interest as you are also of the same age bracket if not older? I go to the Library of Virginia and see the average age of researchers are over 50-years. You are not seeing people in their teens or twenties there doing serious research on family history. In fact I have closed down my own family research and passing on the baton – or at least I tried to but could find NO ONE younger than me in my family who is interested in continuing on or wanting to devote time to it hence my comments. The older people will be dying off and apparently younger generations have less to no interest in genealogy. This is not a new phenomenon either but something that has been building up as time marches on. 

-----Original Message----- 
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Schug-O'Neill, Diane 
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2014 8:46 AM 
To: [log in to unmask] 
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Cemeteries and Burial question 

At the risk of getting hacked at, again... 

Pointing out that others do not share that interest does not equate to my referring to genealogy as "a hobby" - I also do not agree that it is falling to the wayside. I agree with Sandy that it is as strong as ever. It may, in fact, continue to grow. After all, how many times do we see adds on TV to blindly "follow that leaf" after simply typing in your own name. 

I am not a pessimist, I am a pragmatist. I am very well aware of my family origins and communicate that information with any younger family member whenever it is practical. That includes returning to those origins; visiting cemeteries; looking at photos and documents. 


Returning to Read Only Mode, 
Diane 


Diane T. Schug-O’Neill 
Digital Conversion Specialist 
Geography and Map Division 
Library of Congress 


The opinions  expressed in this email are mine and may not necessarily reflet the policies of thee Library of Congress as an institution. 


  

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