Today’s topic is pretty simple. At least, I shall try to keep it simple. Through all of my business classes and worldly experience, I have heard time and time again about how wildly successful people that invent or provide something see a need, recognize that generally everyone has that need, and then do something to fill it. In many cases, this is also determining your own niche in whatever market you happen to be working in. Let’s consider my market.. what do I do? Genealogy research.
So in my market of doing genealogy research what do I have that makes me different? Aside from my own personal methods using a highly refined system that I have developed to find people based on the most minute of information, which is very topic secret and won’t be shared with anyone. I suppose having a certification would make me different since there seems to be only 2 other people in the State of Ohio that are certified (to my knowledge).
I guess what makes me so very different is a few simple things.
- I am the only forensic genealogist (that I could find) within my state and a couple hundred miles
- I am the only person (that I could find) that actually does this full time in my chosen area
- I am the only person that services most of the areas that I cover (limited to individuals, excluding societies)
- Certification. Always a huge plus.
- Published author. Not meaning societies newsletters either. Actual books.
- The broad range of skills and services I provide (research, photo & headstone restore, etc).
- I have traveled all over my chosen area and I know the history of each place. (The fact that I remember most everything I read about these place is noteworthy itself because I can’t remember anything else most of the time!)
But when I consider these things and ask myself if I have a niche, I can say with confidence that I do. Is there anyone else like me? No. So why I am not being constantly bombarded with requests 24/7 and trying to hire as many people as possible to handle the massive workload bearing down upon me? Because even though everyone has a genealogy, not everyone cares. It’s as simple as that.
I’ve come across this problem within my own family. In fact, this is not limited to my own siblings. Although there is three of us, my younger siblings have no desire to care and been insensitive towards me for my interest in genealogy. Branching out a little farther, most of my own first cousins don’t care. A little farther still, most of my dad’s first cousins don’t care. A little farther more, most of my extended family to any degree doesn’t care and have verbally expressed their offensive and very misunderstood feelings towards me. Knowing that I can easily let my temper go but manage to keep it strictly professional when a 4th cousin’s husband is fluently cussing me out, among incredulous insults, says a lot about my determination towards knowing my family.
At college, when I walk around the campus and take a look at those who are supposedly my peers (but much younger than me), I know that each of them has a family. Everyone has a mother and a father. Personal instances and other feelings aside this is the truth of the matter. Is each of them a potential client? Yes. Are they interested in knowing anything about their family? Most often, no. In fact, too many don’t care until it’s too late to ask, if they ever care at all.
Now I have the more refined question. Who cares about their genealogy? Besides the people that are already looking into it or having more than just a passing interest in it? Who actually cares about their genealogy? Given that a greater part of what I do is classified as being as social scientist, people do not seem to realize what it is that genealogy can do for them. Many people don’t know their bloodline and call themselves “mutts”. Here are some good questions that can be asked that genealogy would be able to answer.
- Many people have heard once or twice their grandparents mention something and always wondered what it meant. What it real or a legend steeped in more mystique than truth?
- Where does my family come from and who am I really? In this age of social networking and technology, the age of majority does not seem to know who they actually are or why they are that way. I’ve done my own genealogy and I know who I am and why I am this way and for me there has been a wondrous peace that has come with that knowledge. I’d like to sit 50 kids ages 18-21 and ask them to write an essay in their own words and style who they really are and answer if they know why. I’d bet most of them couldn’t understand the question let alone answer it properly. I shouldn’t be too hard on them, maybe they haven’t matured enough in their thinking to consider these things.
- Why do we celebrate a holiday a certain way? They could wonder why they have certain dishes that other people have never heard about it. There are a lot of unique family and culture based reciepes out there. Something I learned is that apparently some dishes served at holidays are also defined by race not just culture, something I found to be very surprising.
- Am I predisposed to being an alcoholic and don’t know it? Alcoholism is a very real problem and people who struggle with it now may have been predisposed to being that way without knowing it. Why? Because they didn’t know their genealogy. Their great-grandparents could have been that way but it became a well kept family secret for a couple generations then you go out for drinks one night and end up in an AA meeting after having wrecked most of your life and effected people around you. If they had known in advance that alcoholism was in their heritage, would they have taken that first drink all those years ago?
- What about the family medical history… one of your grandparents or cousins or uncles or aunts might of had something that is genetic. Can you die from a cardiovascular disease? Does diabetes run in the family? Is cancer a problem and what kind? When I consider all the possible questions that a person can ask about their family health history in the face of being ignorant, it’s a scary thing to consider. Knowledge is power and knowing if you’re more likely to have or get something may help to lengthen your life by decades. How? By knowing your genealogy.
To continue the last point, there has been a lot of recent genetic research into finding out if specific genes are the cause of things like cancer and alcoholism. That’s a scientific fact.
Once again I come back to the point that everybody has a genealogy, but when asking now who cares, I would say that every one needs too even though I know they won’t.
