Motivation

Family History is often regarded as a hobby, but individual motivations for researching family history may include but are not limited to:

highly personal reasons e.g., as in searching for birth parents to reconnect with family
rebuilding a sense of personal identity and community belonging e.g., stolen generation children removed from family
to reconnect with friends made throughout their lives e.g., soldiers serving in wartime
medical e.g., trying to establish origins or cause of genetic diseases
promoting mental agility, particularly for older people e.g., as a means to delay onset of Alzheimer's Disease
nostalgia e.g., longing for people or times long gone
to establish personal links to royalty or gentry, or to 'claim a convict'
a 'need to know', or personal challenge

Exercise

What would motivate you to begin researching your family history?

What might prevent you from exploring your family history?