Welcome to the Genlight Zone

We, your ancestors, are about to take over your life, your computer, and your family tree.

You are about to enter a world that is partly an art, partly a science, partly guessing, and mostly frustration! While you think you are looking for information about the lives and relationships of us (you ancestors), you are really not prepared for what you may find.

You think you know who we were. Remember, we were humans who loved, scratched for a living, moved overland to new places, became pioneers, and sometimes we lied, cheated, stole, killed, commit adultery, enslaved others, and all sorts of other unsavory things by today's standards. So records about us may be hard to locate, forcing you to theorize (guess) why we did the things we did.

Among our living descendants, you'll find that amateur "genealogists" haven't been quite as diligent as they should have been by not documenting how they connected us.  They haven't always given citations to records or sources that can be found again by you, the next generation.  They refer to "Aunt Jenny's Research".  Ok, where do you find that?

So how should you tell the story of your lineage? Should you be "prudish", thinking "my ancestors could never have done that?" Oh, yes we could...and did! Should you be "kind" and decide that 4th cousin 16 times removed Ethel doesn't need to know who her father really was?

You need to remember that genealogy is what it is...a study and documentation of the lives of people; the good, the bad, and the ugly. You owe it to future generations to report it in as accurate a way as possible by telling like it is and documenting each of us by citing the records and DNA results in your family tree.  No matter if you use Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org or another app for your tree, please provide citations, do not just grab what someone else has in their tree incorrectly.

And don't forget to build your tree in your FamilyTreeDNA kit so your matches can look for a common ancestor, us.

Only then can we rest in peace!

Regards,
Your ancestors