User:Phlox/Genealogy- what we are doing

From Familypedia

The unit of history is customarily measured in terms of the acts of the "Great men"- the big events. While it is true that without these people, we would not be who we are or have the kind of lives we have, the stories of the great figures form only a minute portion of our collective past. Here at Familypedia, we recognize that our history is actually composed of huge numbers of mostly anonymous individuals making small actions. Yet they were small actions only from the perspective of a mass audience. The internet is about micro audiences and for the audience of the descendants of these individuals, their microhistories are hardly insignificant. Amongst these "small actions" include the crucial decision to have a family- an act which if not taken would mean our inexistence. So from a microhistorical point of view, these individuals are fundamentally more important than the "great men" could ever be to us. What we do here renders the lives of these forgotten individuals less anonymous.

Typical genealogies are concerned with statistics concerning individuals. This is a first step, but simple tablular information does little to restore these ancestors from anonymity and in some respects only reinforces it. The real work is is fleshing out the person with detailed individual biographies. Will they be of broad interest? Perhaps many of these untold stories will not gain a wide audience, but one thing is certain: each and every story will have a guaranteed audience in perpetuity amongst the descendants of that individual. Only today do we have the capabilities to do this at a large scale. Until recently, the massive numbers of such Microhistorical stories could not be feasibly produced or would have overwhelmed data systems. Today, with plummeting costs of mass storage and collaboration possible due to the internet this endeavor is now within reach for a global audience.

The article each of us write today about an ancestor may not be about a figure of great importance to everyone, but it will be about a person of crucial importance to you, and to everyone else who is that person's descendant. Who knows when- some descendant will read what you have contributed and will benefit from your work.