Family History: More Than Just A Family Tree
What did my Nan's Christmas cake look like? What did I eat for breakfast most mornings? What was my favourite drink? What did I want to be? What did I accomplish? What did my Gran want to be when she was younger? What did my Grandfather think about the internet? What will my Dad be remembered for? What is my Mum's earliest memory?
All these are questions that I've pondered on over the last few weeks, as I've been filling in more memories on FamilySearch about my family, whilst simultaneously searching records to complete more genealogy work for my family and finding out who I'm related to thanks to a DNA test I did with Ancestry (currently 128 4th cousins or closer and around 21162 others!) and discovered that I am for the most part Northern/Scottish with a hint of Scandinavian, Iberian and Western Europen thrown in for good measure!
Each time I find a new relative, on a census, or a marriage record or death certificate, I have been thinking about them. Thinking about what they looked like, what they sounded like, about what they ate, what they wanted to be, what they were remembered for by those who knew them. I've been thinking about them and wondering what part of them do I take after, if at all!
How important is it to know our own family history?
Well, I think it's really important. Not just because as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that I believe after death I will be reunited with these family members for all eternity, but because I'm realising more and more these days, that the lessons of the past are something we must not forget.
I'm understanding, that I am more than just me, I am an accumulation of all those who have come before me. I have learnt lessons through stories that have been passed down, I understand that in each family there are ups and downs and rough and smooth and in the end? In the end, there is love, a passing on of experience and a knowledge that one day I'll be gone, but I'll love on in stories my descendants will tell...
Probably as a horrible warning of how not to live their own lives!
All these are questions that I've pondered on over the last few weeks, as I've been filling in more memories on FamilySearch about my family, whilst simultaneously searching records to complete more genealogy work for my family and finding out who I'm related to thanks to a DNA test I did with Ancestry (currently 128 4th cousins or closer and around 21162 others!) and discovered that I am for the most part Northern/Scottish with a hint of Scandinavian, Iberian and Western Europen thrown in for good measure!
Each time I find a new relative, on a census, or a marriage record or death certificate, I have been thinking about them. Thinking about what they looked like, what they sounded like, about what they ate, what they wanted to be, what they were remembered for by those who knew them. I've been thinking about them and wondering what part of them do I take after, if at all!
How important is it to know our own family history?
Well, I think it's really important. Not just because as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that I believe after death I will be reunited with these family members for all eternity, but because I'm realising more and more these days, that the lessons of the past are something we must not forget.
I'm understanding, that I am more than just me, I am an accumulation of all those who have come before me. I have learnt lessons through stories that have been passed down, I understand that in each family there are ups and downs and rough and smooth and in the end? In the end, there is love, a passing on of experience and a knowledge that one day I'll be gone, but I'll love on in stories my descendants will tell...
Probably as a horrible warning of how not to live their own lives!