Many of you who know me know that I have a strong interest in genealogy, which is the study of family history.

My interest has developed throughout my entire life, but it wasn’t until about nine years ago that I became fully interested and amazed in the information I had discovered and the research that I was doing.

In 2012, I formed my own business, Paisley Genealogy. As owner and president of the company, my job is to research genealogy and family history for clients.

I have helped people with a variety of research cases, including adoptions.

I even got to teach a semester course in genealogy at my community college.

I love what I do because I get to research a person’s family members and lay out their entire life history onto a tree.

Plus, it is always interesting to discover some of the things that our ancestors did and the things they went through during their lifetime.

Over the years, I do not have as many clients anymore as I have put most of my focus into my education and recovery. However, I still do my own family history research on a daily basis.

I have noticed in my years of work that very few people are interested in their family history.

I believe that people think of genealogy as being simply names and dates, but it is so much more.

We get to, in a way, experience our ancestors’ lives by learning about who they were, where they lived, what they did for work, how many children they had and who they were even married to.

I personally believe that everyone should take an interest in their genealogy, even if it is only temporary.

I am not saying that you have to go full-force with it and become almost obsessed with it like I am.

I have used Ancestry.com as my platform for building my family tree and doing my research, but of course there are other resources people can utilize.

I would suggest if you are interested in learning more, the best thing you can possibly do is start asking the elders in your family some questions.

Buy a notebook and start recording family stories and facts that you have learned from your parents and other family members.

Find what platform works for you, and see where you come from, who your ancestors were and what life was like for them.

Andrew Paisley is a senior journalism major. He can be reached at 581-2812 or at abpaisley@eiu.edu.