The Ancestor Guy tours a mansion in Minnesota.

Genealogy is more than just obtaining dates and names of ancestors. Understanding how your ancestors lived and what life was like in that time period can be just as important. On a recent trip to Minnesota, I had an opportunity to visit the James J. Hill home in St. Paul. The visitor to this historic site gets an idea of what life was like at the turn of the 20th century for the wealthy in the upper Midwest.