What Is My Responsibility

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Responsibility, Creative Commons Icon
courtesy of TheNounProject

“Heroes are not giant statues framed against a red sky. They are those who say: This is my community, and it is my responsibility to make it better.” — Studs Terkel [1]





I see the quote above from a few people in a project list for Wikitree. Why do we continue to do this work we call genealogy research? Is it for the money? I don't know any wealthy genealogists, do you? At least none who earned their riches through their findings, articles or book sales. Perhaps Alex Haley or a few other researcher stars such as Dr. Henry Louis Gates have created a good living for themselves by sales of their books, films and related work. But nobody goes into this work for the money or even fame.


Service

Instead, what I find is people who want to serve their families and communities by finding the records of their family, locating them in their place and time, and finding and telling their stories. Some end up creating works of art, including fiction, poetry, quilts, films, and also documentaries, books for all ages, scholarly articles, classes, lectures and various other articles. 


In Alex Haley's Wikitree profile is a quote which sums it up: 

“In all of us there is a hunger, marrow-deep, to know our heritage — to know who we are and where we have come from. Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning. No matter what our attainments in life, there is still a vacuum, an emptiness, and the most disquieting loneliness.” — Alex Haley


Leave a Legacy

Earlier today I heard two tremendous lectures, the first from Peggy Clemens Lauritzen: "How Using the Genealogical Proof Standard Uncovered a Family Story" and the second by Joseph Roby: “The Enslaved at Oakley & Beyond Project:  How and Why a Descendant of Enslavers Is Researching Enslaved Persons.” Both will be available to view later, fortunately. 

Board for Certification of Genealogists, Genealogical Standards, 50th Anniversary Edition (Nashville & New York: Ancestry Imprint, Turner Publishing, 2014), 1-3, and Thomas W. Jones, Mastering Genealogical Proof (Arlington, Va.: National Genealogical Society, 2013).


While the topics seem quite different, there is a common thread--using the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS) to do the best quality research possible, and tell the complete story of their families and those associated with them. They both express the desire to do their best work so this would be their legacy. I'm inspired to do the same, and I hope you are too. 


Courtesty of Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository


1. Studs Terkel (1980). “American Dreams: Lost and Found”, p.337, The New Press


Valorie Zimmerman


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