Family Genealogy

I am often asked what it is about Genealogy that has keep me searching for over 30 years.

The truth?  I am not really sure.  Perhaps it is the thrill of the search and discovering the ‘secrets’ that lie hidden in old letters and documents.

Then again, maybe it is finding out the traits of past ancestors and how they relate to me.  For example.  Since my earliest memories I have loved to write. Writing comes easily for me.  When I awaken in the morning, there is a story or article running through my mind and if I can’t get it down on paper, or on the computer screen, I feel frustration all day.

 

Weird?  Yeah, I know.  That is what I was told for years until I discovered that I come from a long line of prolific writers. My uncle was a journalist who, with his team, won a Pulitzer prize, my grandfather was a writer and publisher of the Forest Farmer’s Association newsletter, a community paper, and several other periodicals.  He also wrote poetry and short stories.  He was working on a book when he died, and though unfinished, it holds promise. My grandmother was an avid writer as was her sister, my great aunt. Even going back several generations I find many writers in my family.  So, perhaps I inherited the gene, or perhaps, if one believes such things, I embody the spirits of those who never finished writing what they had to say.

A relative once said she thought she was adopted because she didn’t look anything like her siblings and cousins.  Imagine her delight when I discovered we had a family twin in her great grandmother.

Then, there are the medical reasons for seeking out my family story.  Or perhaps just a curiosity about those relations I have heard about but never met, like my grandfathers who both died before I was born.

Now, as i begin to get closer to the age where memories begin to fail, I find a new urgency. Something continues to drive me as I push to record all that I have learned about my immediate and extended family.  With the death of my mother a few years ago, it was suddenly clear to me how important it is not to put off the process of discovery. Not to be pushed aside when a relation doesn’t want to talk about the history.  I regret that I did not push mother for more of her history, but I understand her reluctance as a survivor of WWII and from the stories she did share, I realize the trama that her family suffered.

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I guess it doesn’t really matter to me why I keep searching, struggling to know my ancestors. I am thankful that I have the drive to continue.  For one day I will be gone, but the legacy of our family will be there, recorded for my children and grandchildren, and even their children.  Perhaps some day in the distant future an, as yet unknown person, will pick up the story where I must leave off and in so doing they too will discover the passion that drives us.  They will know that they inherited that passion from their distant grandmother, me.  And, I hope, they will learn through my research, a little about who I am, or was.

Enjoy your search.  You never know what might turn up.