Researching and Technology

As a family history researcher, I have often said researching family history is a “Labor of Love”. I began researching the Coleman’s and Cameron’s of Mississippi in 1994.

It is personally rewarding to know your roots. each time you discover another piece of family history you uncover a piece of American history from the human perspective.

Genealogy addiction comes with frustration. I am sure every family history researcher shares the frustration of wondering if there was something else that could have been uncovered, or some record missed.  This is a frustration that all genealogy researchers learn to live with but it never diminishes the curiosity of looking for more.

For the serious genealogy researcher, strong dedication is needed a true love of the past and even a zealous pursuit of genealogy clues and leads.  As ancestors become real people in our minds, there is a sense of fulfillment.

Thanks to technological development which includes the internet and software programs which has simplified family history research.

Thanks to technology and the internet, I have located long lost relatives and some I did not know I had.

In a previous blog, I introduced Sterling “Robert Ford” Cameron who had ran away from home at 12 years old was never seen again for close to 40 years. By the miracle of the internet, I have been introduced to Sterling's son.

In early February 2011, I received an email from a lady by the name of Ruth Oates in Los Angeles California. Ruth had found the picture and story I had written on Sterling “Robert Ford” Cameron attached to his name on Ancestry.com. Ruth had been married to Sterling’s son Robert who had died in 1982. She was also present at the funeral of Sterling “Robert Ford” Cameron in 1969.

Robert Oates, son of Sterling "Robert Ford" Cameron

The story above is an example of how technology has opened up a whole new world for family history researchers.