RSS Feeds: Genealogy and Clan Cunningham Revisited
As I previously wrote concerning Clan Cunningham, it's much more important to know where you're going than where you came from. There are those in my "clan", however, who refuse to let sleeping dogs lie. I wonder… do they think it's important to hang on to some kind of legacy? If we had rich ancestors or are descendants of royalty, then it might be a worthwhile pursuit. Since my research has shown neither to be the case, why would I be interested in my own genealogy? Well, since I can't stop anyone in my extended families from dwelling on the past, all I can do is correct the errors they make.
Genealogy Research
The Internet has an abundance of information. The information concerning my family name is unorganized at best. Finding the names isn't what's hard; connecting the dots is what's hard. There are way too many duplicate first names, without any indication of middle names, and way too many duplicate first, middle and last names to sort it all out properly.
This is where genealogy software and websites come into play. They are tools to help you organize the information and sort it into something coherent. Family Tree Maker is a popular genealogy software title for the PC. Reunion 9 seems to be the favorite as genealogy software for the Mac.
I don't know how many websites are genealogy-driven. The only I was aware of until recently was Ancestry.com and I never liked using it even when I was slightly interested in genealogy. A few days ago, I found out my younger sister had added me and my family at MyHeritage.com and I went there only to make minor corrections. The top of the tree is my grandparents, but I noticed that aunts, uncles and their families have yet to be added.
How far do you go?
This is the part of tracing the family tree I find to be the most annoying. Just how far back should you go, even if you can go all the way back to the beginning?
One of the reasons I gave up on it was because I didn't want to discover something I didn't want to know. There is always a skeleton in the closet somewhere because nobody has ever had a perfect life. I would be beside myself if I found out one of my ancestors was a slave owner or a slave trader, or if one of my ancestors participated in any of the acts of genocide of the last two centuries.
I don't know about you, but I have my own guilt to deal with and I don't need to add ancestral guilt to go along with it.
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Richard,
What a fascinating web-site and your observation about Clan Cunningham are right on target. There are those of us that are working to unite, and a few who just will not move forward beyond who slighted who.
I too became involved with Clan Cunningham after the prodding of my oldest daughter. She was tired of going to Scottish Festivals, visiting the clan village, only to be disappointed that Clan Cunningham did not have a Clan Tent. So now 6-years later I host about 6 to 8 Clan Cunningham host tents throughout the year here in the Northeast.
I hope that you have visited our web-site http://www.clancunninghamusa.org/ it is packed with great information. This past summer several of us visited Scotland, we took 20 members on tour of the Scottish lowlands visiting site that held Clan Cunningham importance. One thing became clear in our discuss with local Cunningham’s and other Cunningham’s visiting Scotland, that they wanted an International Clan Cunningham organization, up to this point our organization was known as Clan Cunningham USA. Upon our return to the states we changed our name to Clan Cunningham International. Our name change has been followed up by action. I am the Chair of the CCI Bylaws Committee we have Cunningham’s from; America, Scotland, England, Spain, and South Africa on the Committee. Since we became CCI we have enrolled new members from Canada, Scotland, and New Zealand. We certainly would welcome someone one such as you into our membership.
There are those who are very interested and active in researching and preserving our rich heritage. There are members who join to fill in gaps with their genealogical research, and then there are those of us that enjoy getting out to Scottish Festivals and meet, and make new family friends.
Richard, I hope that we can become good friends in time; I use Skype to talk with Cunningham from all over the place. I hope you check us out, if you have questions please ask, I do not know the answer I will try to find one.
Again I enjoyed your site, keep it up.
You’re Kinsman
Steve Cunningham
ccusane@comcast.net
http://ccusane.org/