Preserving Family History- We are more than names and dates
Guest post number eight! See the link if you’d like to write one yourself. This week’s post was written by Melissa, a lifelong teacher and Maddie’s mom (and hopefully, my secondary mom if I play my cards right). One of Melissa’s hobbies that I’m truly amazed by is her extensive spreadsheet analysis of important life events, like the world cup, past seasons of the bachelor, and a catalog of ranked books. Additionally, I admire Melissa’s warm hospitality and life know-how. Thank you Melissa for taking the time to share your writing!
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“Gold, for the instant, lost its luster in his eyes, for there were countless treasures of the heart which it could never purchase.” -Charles Dickens
What is family? Family is more valuable than gold. How do you define family? Is family your blood relatives, your ancestors or is family the people who raise you? The answers to these questions are as individual as humans themselves. We know some children are raised by their biological parents, some are adopted, some are raised by both biological and step-parents, yet they are all families. Let’s face it, families come in all shapes and sizes. But, what we do know is that family molds us, it makes us who we are. Those who nurture us, feed us, celebrate us, take us to church, and love us unconditionally are our families. When we stumble and fall, when we want to share our happiness and our successes, the first people we turn to is family.
But, how do historians look at families? Genealogists rely on family names, dates, and locations to research family trees. But vital statistics don’t tell the entire story of someone's life. Really, it’s a cold representation of someone's time on earth. We are more than names in a book or on a digital tree. Our rich, unique stories tell the true history of our lives. The stories bring our trees to life and help us connect with our forefathers (and mothers) whose lives were necessary for our very own existence. In fact, these stories are so important to most of us that we conjure up creative ways to document them for future generations. One family decided that for their father’s 84th birthday they would start sending him a question about his life once a week. After receiving his responses, the family plans to make a book using the collection of stories adding pictures to complete the historical annotation of his life. I can’t imagine a more beautiful expression of appreciation for celebrating someone's lifetime of contributions made to the formation of his family.
As an educator, I have learned that students understand and relate to history in a more in-depth manner when they can connect their lives to historical events. History comes to life and the students have by in when they can tie the historical events to family members in their tree. Education in my opinion is the answer to many of the issues/problems that we experience in society. We need to learn from the past as to not repeat our errors in the future. So we must ask ourselves, what would we like our children’s children to know about us? What is our legacy? Did we make a difference in people's lives?
Storytelling can enrich our understanding and can be a tangible representation of our lives, but there is more. By the act of passing down a family heirloom, we can provide future generations with an understanding of the kind of person we were, letting them know what interested us, what we achieved, and what made us unique individuals contributing to the betterment of this world. My husband's grandfather was a WWII Purple Heart recipient. His Purple Heart and Silver Star are cherished heirlooms that enrich the stories of his heroism, courage, and strength. Grandad’s story is an inspiration to all of us and it is something that we must cherish and behold, as to never forget his contribution to freedom in this world.
Leaving family heirlooms to our descendants provides an opportunity to support, motivate and grow our future generations. Society does this as well, but instead of families owning history, the artifacts are curated and displayed in museums to be shared by all.
Times have changed. Younger generations have observed the repercussions of our throw-away society and minimalism has become in vogue. And trust me, that is a good thing, our planet needs it. My fear is that in this process I wonder if we are throwing away our history? Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Clearly, we must be choosy as to what needs to be collected and memorialized. But with careful consideration, each person should be able to set aside a few precious artifacts that can be handed down as a small picture of the person we were as contributing members of our families and our society. Hopefully, our Descendents will find value in keeping our tiny piece of history for the generations to come.
Family is everything. Watch this series if you love reality TV and genealogy: Relative Race.
