I don’t but I’d like to.
Last Sunday my family and I had a lovely day out at a friend’s mountain home. Apart from the usual grilling, eating, deserting and drinking, I spent ages examining his family tree which was a three part series hanging on the wall. I must admit I did feel a pang of guilt and a slight bit of jealousy that I didn’t have one too.
Many of us want to write up our family stories, but with busy schedules, a 300-page book may not be in our future! A family tree is though. Knowing, recording, and preserving your family history directly impacts you, your family, and even future generations of people you may never know.
“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” —Marcus Garvey.
Learning the history of our ancestors helps us gain a greater understanding of the challenges they faced, and it often inspires greater love and compassion for their flaws and mistakes. This compassion can easily translate to our relationships with the living within our families. We all face hard things but remembering them allows us to be better employees, managers, spouses, parents, children, siblings, and human beings.
Our family history goes beyond the names and dates we find in our tree. It’s about what makes us who we are. It’s about people with whom we can form deep connections. It’s about people who lived and breathed and suffered and triumphed. It’s about roots and branches which leave behind entire forests.
It’s about all of us.
Maria x
