Doing family tree research for friends
Friends who see my tree research occasionally ask for help getting started with their genealogy. I really enjoy doing the research for them. Over 30 years I’ve done about 20 projects for friends. I usually spend about 2 months just compiling data available on the internet and then creating a nice presentation. The easy stuff.
In every case my friends have been extremely impressed and appreciative. Many have been inspired to pick up the work themselves. I’ve found pictures of ancestors that my friends had never seen, books that ancestors had written and even artwork.
In none of these projects have I unearthed anything scandalous, traumatic or upsetting to anyone. Just the occasional birth soon after the wedding, a child who died in infancy that wasn’t talked about, or a previous marriage no one was aware of. But these have always been so far back that they were just interesting or amusing, not troubling.
But heres the weird part: hardly any of these friends have ever shared the work to their immediate or extended families. It would seem as though that would be their first impulse. When I ask “ how did your mother/sister/cousin like the project?” They typically say they didn’t show it to anyone. Why? Just didn’t get around to it. Or some other evasive answer. I’m baffled.