The Cambridge Dictionary defines the word challenge as: "The situation of being faced with something that needs great mental or physical effort in order to be done successfully and therefore tests a person's ability".1
When I started researching my family history approximately 10 years ago or so, I knew some of the names of my ancestors, but as I dug deeper, the "hunt" became much more challenging and therefore more interesting. Some lines "opened" up and flowed more easily and the next thing I knew I was back in the "old country" in the early 1600's and on other lines, I had barely made it out of the 1900's and I found myself smack up against the proverbial "brick wall". With the discoveries I was making, the door to discovery was opening and I was "hooked" as they say on genealogy!
As I shared some of these finding with family members, I found myself facing another "challenge"-one of indifference. I was finding out all of these interesting people in our family and they were like, "so what, these people are all dead and they have nothing to do with us"! "Why are you spending SO much time researching these people"!! I couldn't understand why they were not interested in our relatives!! So I had to come to terms with the fact that I was the only "genealogist" in the family and move on.
When I discovered that I might be eligible to join the Daughters of the American Revolution, I was over the moon! I suspected that we might have an ancestor who fought in the Revolution when I discovered that many of my paternal ancestors settled in Massachusetts in the late 1600's and early 1700's. Having early New England ancestors usually indicates that you have Revolutionary ancestors and the challenge would be to prove it. I embarked on the challenge to find my Revolutionary ancestor. It just so happened that a cousin emailed me when she came across an enquiry that I had sent to the library that she was volunteering for. I had requested an obituary for one of our shared ancestors. Well thru our correspondence we discovered that we shared a common ancestor that was a Revolutionary War Veteran!! Talk about serendipity! Yes, genealogy can be challenging, but it can be really fun!! It turned out that I had already found my initial Revolutionary War Veteran, but this cousin had found another ancestor who fought in the war. So far I have found 12 ancestors who fought in the war!!
Every time I sit down to work on my genealogy I am challenged. It is part of the fun. If it was not challenging, I don't think I would do it. It's the challenge that makes it interesting!!
SOURCES
1. The Cambridge Dictionary Online, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/challenge, accessed 1-8-2019.
