The purpose of researching your family history
Why do I research my family history?
From my earliest days I heard story after story about my family's history. My mom loved connecting the dots between people. She was always introducing me to people wherever we met and telling me stories about those people and how they connected to our lives. Further both Mom and Dad loved getting together with family. They derived great joy from family gatherings and celebrations. The extended family was a centerpiece of my life as a child, and that's where my desire to understand our family history started.
As I research family history, I enjoy looking for trends that cross generations. For example, as I research my husband's family, I note their resilience in the face of a number of early deaths that occurred throughout the generations. In my own extended family, time and again, I see a trend towards keeping family close via celebrations and regular gatherings. My parents and their siblings were very close when I was young, and that brought a lot of joy and strength to my life. I always felt like I was embedded in a warm nest of strong relationships.
While I enjoy discovering the family strengths, trends, and wisdom, it's interesting to note the challenges families faced over time too. Some challenges repeat, and it's good to understand those challenges in order not to repeat those pitfalls if possible. In general, our families have been extraordinarily healthy evidenced by many long lives and few debilitating illnesses or early deaths. This is positive.
What purpose does researching family history play in my life.
I'm curious by nature and I like to understand how the pieces of our very large, extended family fit together. So, in many ways, this research is a hobby. I also enjoy learning about places and how our family members fit into those places. Often my dad and I will take drives, and as we drive, he'll tell me about the places we go and what happened in those places during his ife. We've driven by the place where he and my mom celebrated their wedding reception in Leicester, Massachusetts. We've also often visited the area in and around the Quabbin Reservoir Conservation Lands, and there he often recounts drives he took with his dad Pete when he was young, and as we travel through Fitchburg, he recounts dropping Jimmy Shea off many a Sunday because Jimmy was a writer for the Fitchburg Sentinel. I enjoy understanding how our family history connects to place.
I also want my children to know where they come from and who they are related to. When you have a giant extended family like I do, it's important to know where all the relatives live and who they are.
What is the balance of living for the past, today, and into the future?
There's a point where the family history doesn't matter because what's happening here and now is more important. You don't want to bury yourself in the past, but instead use the wisdom of the past stories, experiences, and events to inform a positive life today and into the future.
My extended family is branching out in a great number of ways--family members live all over the world, and the number of new babies, marriages, and connections far outpace the sad losses of loved ones that occur.
I welcome family members questions and curiosity in this regard as I put the finishing touches on my research to focus more on the events of the day and into the future.
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