I’m having some Saturday Night Genealogy Fun (#SNGF), with help from Randy Seaver and his prompts! Feel free to join in.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: February 7, 2026

Prompt:

“Have you researched the ancestors of your spouse (or significant other)? Please list the names and vital records data for your spouse/SO’s grandparents and great-grandparents like in an Ahnentafel Report.

“Have you written genealogical sketches and/or biographies for each of them?

“Share your list of your spouse/SO’s ancestors in your own blog post or in a Facebook, SubStack, BlueSky or other social media post. Leave a link to your post on this blog post to help us find your post.”

Introduction

I’m having some Saturday Night Genealogy Fun (#SNGF), inspired by one of Randy Seaver’s prompts, and this one made me stop and think a bit longer than usual.

The prompt asks:
Have you researched your spouse’s ancestors? Can you list their grandparents and great-grandparents, maybe even write sketches or biographies for them?

And here’s where I’ll be honest.

Oh, heck no – you do not want a neat list of names from me.

What you probably want to know is something more interesting anyway:
Have I been neglecting my husband’s side of the family in favor of my own?

Short answer: no.
Longer answer: his ahnentafel is shorter than mine, but not because it matters less, only because it unfolds differently.

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My Side vs. His Side

I’ve been researching my own family for much longer, and like many of us, I grew up hearing stories that naturally pulled me in that direction. Familiar names, familiar places: they create an emotional gravity that’s hard to resist.

But researching my husband’s family changed once we had children.

Suddenly, this wasn’t just his ancestry. It was theirs.

And unlike my own lines, his family history reaches across the ocean only a few generations back. That means records still exist in European archives – records that are surprisingly rich, precise, and sometimes humbling.

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What His Ancestors Taught Me

Researching my husband’s family has taught me things I never would have learned otherwise.

I’ve gained a deep respect for careful Jewish recordkeeping.
I’ve watched surnames and spellings shift – and the language of the records – depending on who was occupying a region at the time.
I’ve seen how laws, traditions, and restrictions quietly shaped people’s life choices in ways that don’t always announce themselves on a pedigree chart.

This is why I don’t think genealogy should ever be a numbers game. We all know that moment – someone boasting about the size of their tree – and how empty that can feel.

What matters is what each line teaches you.

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A Gentle Challenge

So here’s my question for this week’s SNGF:

What have you learned by researching someone – or somewhere – that was unfamiliar to you at first?

Not how many names you added.
Not how far back you went.

But what surprised you once you slowed down and paid attention.

Figure 1 My husband’s cousin’s birth, recorded in Russian because the Russians occupied Suwalki in 1909.

AI Disclosure

This post was created by me with the help of AI tools. While AI helps organize research, the storytelling and discoveries are my own.