Alona Tester from Gould Genealogy has proposed a Family History through the Alphabet series over the coming 26 weeks. I decided that my theme would be the Attributes we need as family historians: the skills, experience and talents you bring to your research. We’ve reached the letter D already and here are my nominations:
D is for dedication: the marriage of devotion or love, belief and commitment to this adventure that you’re on.
D is for determination: the need to push beyond the first (or umpteenth) stumbling block and keep researching, coming back for more.
D is for discernment (aka blarney detector): the ability to weed out facts from fantasy, to weigh up the merits of a story and determine how it might be proven/invalidated, and to know it needs to be. The ability and/or skill to weigh up data from different sources and determine their consistency and validity, and to know it needs to be.
What attributes starting with the letter D would you add?
Most achievers I know are people who have made a strong and deep dedication to pursuing a particular goal. That dedication took a tremendous amount of effort. Donald Johanson, an archaeologist.[i]
Family history across the seas 
Love it! Those are some very moving words you’ve chosen and so apt to family history research. I’m particularly fond of discernment and was going to use ‘doubt’ for my D post. It would’ve been a tribute to the number of times I’m muttered ‘hmmm, doubt it’.
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I had another more Australian word for discernment but thought I should be discerning in my choice of vocabulary. Sounds like we share a high degree of scepticism. Sometimes I wonder if I’m not too cynical.
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D is for Diligence : Careful and persistent effort.
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Thanks Geniaus. I’m starting to feel we must all be Wunderkinder.
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I agree with Fiona – what a wonderful bunch of words you’ve come up with again. The only others I thought of were Discover, though that’s not really an attribute, and Discretion, which we all know is needed when dealing with those sensitive family stories.
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Thanks. I think discretion is an excellent addition, which to be honest hadn’t crossed my mind in the D list.
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Another post showing great insight, particularly discernment. Can be tricky trying to weed out the fiction and decide which information is valid.
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Thanks Genealyn. Yes I truly think discernment is an important attribute for us to cultivate.
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What great attributes these are. Thanks, Cassmob and everyone.
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Thanks Rebelhand!
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Totally Agree. I promise I didn’t copy but my blog is also Dedication and Determination (and I nearly added Driven). Great minds think alike!
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I agree – they weren’t astonishing choices….simpatico obsessives do think alike 😉
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