Hi! I'm interested in categorizing (all) musicians, although what I personally specialize in and most people are interested in from a historical aspect is military music. (Today) we think of music as a hobby or of ne'er-do-well rock-stars... but in camp, they acted as the clock to tell everyone when it was time to wake up, eat, move out, get back to camp, go to sleep... on the battle-field they would call out maneuvers and raise morale or incite fear. On the road they would keep time and give soldiers tunes to sing along to. In the officer's service, they would serve as chamber musicians at fancy dinners, translators, messengers, and even spies!
And, there are many studies that show musical proficiency translates to other areas in math and science and linguistics. So to find out your ancestor was a musician may not simply be an interesting "cool" fact, but could give you some interesting "ah ha" moments about your genes.
Fun fact: I've been playing both fife AND snare drum (unusual to play both, even in the genre) for over 32 years. I didn't find out until last year that my 5th great grandfather was both listed as a fifer AND drummer during the American Revolution from the Lexington Alarm to the Valley Forge encampment - and several of his cousins/nephews/kids were also listed as fifers or drummers in the War of 1812 or Rev War as well.
