As we ate dinner there, we began talking about - what else? - Genealogy. It occurred to me that genealogical research is a lot like a Chinese buffet. I know it sounds a little strange, but in "Along Those Lines …" this week, humor me and let's explore the idea.

International, Yet Regional and Local, in Scope
A good Chinese buffet presents you with food from a foreign land on the other side of the globe. There are dishes which we always identify as uniquely Chinese, such as won ton soup and egg rolls, which you could obtain anywhere in China. Yet there is regional fare, such as the spicy Szechwan cuisine, which leaves our lips and tongues tingling. On the other hand, there are other, more locally identifiable dishes, from specific areas and towns, which include different ingredients and unique flavors found nowhere else.

Genealogical research is often like the wide range of Chinese food. Like a great Chinese buffet, we are a mixture of international, yet regional and local lineages. Few of us can claim that our ancestry is one derived strictly from a single small area. We can trace and lay claim to a heritage that often is a combination of diverse countries, different areas, and then local connections within a much smaller community. We may descend from a combination of ethnic origins, tribes, and disparate religious backgrounds. It is this great diversity that gives us so much to research and provides so many opportunities to learn. It also can help us understand more about ourselves and the culture, traditions, and unique qualities within our families and ourselves.

Many Options to Try
The Chinese buffet we enjoyed last Saturday night included at least 40 different choices. Fried rice, egg rolls, pot stickers, and fried won tons were there, but so were such dishes as General Tso's chicken, glazed shrimp with walnuts, spicy beef and broccoli, sautéed scallops with red peppers, Mongolian spareribs, pork with lo mein noodles, and Mandarin chicken. The list goes on! There were also dishes I'd never seen or heard of before. With so many tempting choices, it's hard to decide where to start.

Our genealogy is a lot like the choices in the Chinese buffet. We have a limited capacity for what we can choose to put on our plate and to consume at one meal. But doesn't that apply to genealogy as well?

There are so many options available to us in genealogy. What geographical area and ancestors from there will I research first? Record types are like the different dishes on the Chinese buffet: which ones will I have this time? I've often heard genealogists say, "So many ancestors, so little time," and that certainly seems true. No one can enter a library or courthouse first thing in the morning and expect to complete his entire family's research in every record type. Like a good buffet, sometimes you just have to stop where you are, go and work with what you have, and then come back for more later.

Different Ways to Partake
The food on a Chinese buffet and the evidence we locate in our research are both meant to be savored, enjoyed, and digested. Rushing through the meal detracts from the pleasure of the banquet experience. Likewise, hurrying through our genealogical research dilutes the enjoyment of exploration, the delight that analyzing the information imparts, and the satisfaction of a research job well done.

A Chinese restaurant usually provides you the option of eating implements. You can choose to use wooden chopsticks or opt for silverware. You have a choice of tools to use with your genealogical research as well. You can use paper books and documents, or you can use the Internet. You can manually transcribe or abstract information you find or make a photocopy. You can make notes on paper or take along a laptop or handheld computer and enter data.

If your genealogical chopsticks (handwritten notes) are more comfortable or if they help you better concentrate on what you are partaking of, then by all means use them! If the silverware (higher technological tools) is easier for you to use, certainly choose it.

"Don't Forget My Fortune Cookie!"
The point of this analogy is that there are lots of choices in life, both at the Chinese buffet and in your genealogical research. Certainly there is more than one way to conduct your research, and you have options of what you want to work with at a given time. Choose the area and the people you want to research, determine what records you want to work with this time, and then savor the opportunity and the experience.

We have come to expect that a perfect Chinese meal will conclude with a fortune cookie. The two fortunes we received seemed appropriate to our genealogical research too, and we had to laugh at the irony. One read, "You are patient and thorough." Wow! Don't we have to be that with genealogy? The other read, "When one must, one does." That seems appropriate for those times when we encounter brick walls: when you have to look elsewhere for evidence, we certainly do. And just like the Chinese buffet, we can always go back for more!

Happy Dining!
George