Will they thank us?

[suttontrust]

I think many of us started our research because of the birth of a new family member.  With me, it was the birth of my great-nephew.  Now I have a new great-niece, born in April, and that has prompted her father to research his own family.  Since I've "done" his wife's mother's tree as well, we will end up with a very large tree for little Maria Rose.
But will these children thank us when they're old enough to understand it?  Few young people are interested in family history.  When they do get interested, will they feel somehow cheated that we did it all and left little for them to find out?

[downside]

There will always be census releases to look forward to every 10 years and they always throw up new information and mysteries.

downside

[kerryb]

And there is always some part of the family we have not managed to find!  I don't think it is true to say that young people are not interested.  A lot of schools these days seem to be doing family history as part of the curriculum and my nephew is becoming fascinated.  Apparently so are most of his friends.

Kerry

[jericho]

Every time I discover a new ancestor my 18 year old, rolls her eyes        and says who cares mum "there dead "    but I think there may be hope for my eight year old she loves to tell everyone that its mum's  job to do the family tree, as if its all I ever do, well the amount of time I send on it, I'm not surprised she thinks that all I ever do.




jericho

[kerryb]

My nephew is 11 so I guess he has not had time to become sceptical yet!!!!!!

Kerry

[downside]

The signs to watch out for are if they start doing crossword puzzles and  then progressing to cryptic crosswords.  Once they have mastered those they might start yearning for something more complex like the biggest puzzle of them all, their family tree.

downside

[MarieC]

There are some young members on here!  It is true that some young people are interested, even if not all.  And some may become interested later.  I wasn't interested at all till a few years ago, and now I'm a fanatic!!!! 

I think the point is just to do it and have it there as a resource.  I'm sure some family member, somewhere, in the future will be thankful for it.

MarieC

[kerryb]

Downside, I think that was how I started.

Kerry

[Gadget]

The signs to watch out for are if they start doing crossword puzzles and  then progressing to cryptic crosswords.  Once they have mastered those they might start yearning for something more complex like the biggest puzzle of them all, their family tree.

downside

I think I got into Family History at  the age of 8 when we inherited a Family Bible and I loved all the bits of paper between the pages.

I got inot cryptic crosswords later 

My great nephew (nearly 9) is very interested in whether he's x the 4th or 7th as he has a family first name. He also knows that Aunty* Gadget is doing it all but He'll have to continue afterwards.

Train em young, that's what I say 

Gadget

* the Aunty bit's been dispensed with