Genealogy, the study of one’s familial roots, is a fascinating subject. I have spent nearly seven years researching my own roots and have built a considerably large family tree, with some branches going back hundreds of years. However, just like any other genealogist, I have made some mistakes along the way. It’s easy to find data that looks correct but is in fact completely unrelated, especially when it comes to things like family stories. Moreover, there are often gaps in historical records due to lost documentation. As a result, I sometimes wonder just how much I actually know about my ancestors.
Recently, I found a new perspective on this question of how accurate our genealogical knowledge is. At the time, I was watching an episode of “Star Trek: Voyager”, one of my favorite shows; the episode in question involved the crew sharing stories of their heritage. Most of the episode revolves around the story of Captain Janeway’s ancestor, Shannon Janeway née O’Donnell, and the fact that most of the family lore surrounding this ancestor is entirely wrong. At the end of the episode, she pontificates with her crew on how much successive generations will know about them and how much of that information will be correct. That got me wondering: how much information will be left about my life for my descendants?
I admit that this line of thought is not something that often enters the mind of a genealogist. By its very definition, genealogy is about studying the past, not the future. But the more I think about it, the more it makes sense to make sure that I pass on not only information I’ve obtained on the family tree, but on myself as well. Some might say this seems selfish or arrogant, the kind of thinking we’d expect from an Egyptian pharaoh. But I’m not trying to live after death. I simply want to make sure that my descendants know who I was, what kind of man I was. After all, isn’t the entire point of genealogy remembering the past?
After considering these thoughts for a while, I have decided that I would like to preserve information about my life for those who come after. I want to ensure that, regardless of what people say, my story in my own words can still be around. Granted, I don’t have children yet, but I intend to have them one day when I meet the right woman. But even if I never have children of my own, I can at least leave this information for the descendants of my brothers and cousins. So now the question becomes what information do I leave?
Certainly, I want to leave my family tree so that future generations know where they came from and who came before them. But what personal information do I leave? From the perspective of a genealogist, I tend to think that the obvious things would be information on my birth, residency and any marriages I might have. However, as useful as those things are, I know from experience that you can’t really connect to a person when all you have is statistics. Of all the ancestors I have traced, I only connect to the few that I have found biographical information on. But published biographies are almost always, shall we say, sanitized. If there is to be a biography on me, I want it written by my own hand. I don’t want to gloss over the nasty spots. But still, the question of content remains.
My thinking is that I should write something along the lines of essays or journals, starting with a narrative of my life to date. From there, I will continue writing as my life unfolds; hopefully I’ll have at least another sixty years or so to put in there. But do I put every mundane detail in, or include only the important things? Surely the latter, as I would simply bore people otherwise (not that my life is that terribly exciting anyway). On the other hand, sometimes the things we consider mundane are what give others the best insight into who we are. As a genealogist, some of the best things to find are old letters and diaries, so why shouldn’t I leave something like that for my descendants?
Looking at it in that light suggests that in addition to writing my story, I should also leave heirlooms because they are a vital part of my story. Anything I write, no matter how hard a try, will likely have gaps due to the fact that I simply don’t remember everything. Other things are hazy, so I may not remember them accurately. Heirlooms can help to fill in these gaps for a more complete story of my life. I have always regretted the fact that, aside from old letters and cards my grandmother has kept from over the years (few of which I have actually seen), we have few family heirlooms. However, the few we have are truly amazing treasures nonetheless; I have always particularly loved the 200+ year old grandfather clock made by my five-times great-grandfather (for those not familiar with this abbreviation, it means my great-great-great-great-great-grandfather). As I am young, I don’t have many things that I would want to see passed on, but that is also partially due to the fact that we live in the age of computers. Much of the work I do, such as writing these blog posts and working on musical compositions, is done on a computer. So how does one pass on files on a computer?
I believe the answer to this is that I need to create some kind of interactive database containing all my digital files. This, however, is considerably easier said than done; although I am a skilled coder when it comes to web design, the only programming languages I have any skill with are rather antiquated (Long live Basic!). Unfortunately, this is not a question I can really answer here as it will require a great deal of thought and planning, not to mention learning new skills. But whatever I design, it must be vast so that it can accommodate not only the things I create, but also the treasures I have uncovered on my genealogical quest. Over seven years of research, I have acquired hundreds of pages of documents regarding my family tree as well as thousands upon thousands of family photos, almost all of which have been digitized (I have digitized everything currently in my possession, but am always trying to borrow photos from family members so that I can preserve them); while most of the photos were taken within the last 30-40 years, I have many hundreds of photos that date back years, even decades before that. I currently use Picasa to share them with family members as I get them organized into albums, but I want to find a more permanent solution so that they are accessible and preserved.
Before I go on, I’m sure some people are no doubt wondering why the heck someone as young as I am is concerned with preserving the story of his life and those that came before him. Rest assured that I am not suicidal nor do I believe my life will end anytime soon; frankly, if my family tree is any indication, I’ll probably live into my nineties. But that research has also showed that in so many cases, so little is known about a person due simply to a lack of records or documentation. With most of my ancestors, I’m fortunate to know their names and dates of birth and death due to the fact that most of them were desperately poor and wouldn’t have had the means to leave many records. I don’t want this to be the case after I’m gone and, honestly, I hope that most people think about this at some point. But I don’t want to wait until I’m old and gray to start writing my story. I want to start now while I can still remember my early years.
So my plan stands thus: I will write my story so that it is preserved and I will design some kind of a database so that all the research and photos I have accrued can also be preserved. But this project is not meant to be finished at any given time; I will add to both as much as I can. Any new research or photos will immediately go into the database and I will continue writing down events as I see fit. Here’s where the one caveat is: because I intend to include everything of substance about my life, I will be writing this by hand (I actually tend to prefer writing by hand anyway) due to the fact that there are things that I am simply not yet ready to make public, although I suspect that time is closer than I think.
Frankly, re-reading that last sentence makes me think that this project could actually be rather therapeutic for me. Though I appear to be confident and well put-together, I still have many things about myself that I dislike, things that I need to work on. There are things in my past that I don’t think I’ve ever really come to terms with, regardless of the fact that they had an enormous impact in shaping the man I am. My soul is whole and strong, but it’s covered in bruises and stains, but by writing my story, perhaps I can begin to finally heal some of those injuries instead of sealing them away in the depths of my memory. After all, putting something behind you is only part of the healing process. While it sometimes takes a while, I am generally pretty good at eventually finding a way past things, but as I grow older, I’ve begun to realize the impact that things can have on a person’s soul. Yes, I’ve managed to keep my life going, but there are still things that must be faced and I think it’s high time I began to address some of these issues, at least in private.
While I am unsure of when, if ever, these writings will be released, I am writing about it here both to use this blog as a sounding board for refining the idea and so that others might become more interested in their own genealogy. Studying your roots has a kind of gratification that can’t be put into words. You will find both wonders and dark spots on your quest. Family lore may be proven right or wrong or somewhere in between. But it is always worth it; to see just how amazing it can be, watch “Who Do You Think You Are?” on TLC on Tuesdays or any of the mini-series that Henry Louis Gates Jr. has done for PBS over the years. I recently began writing my own blog (initially for a class project, but I’m planning to keep using it; feel free to visit it at lookingforyourroots.wordpress.com) in order to share tips and tricks so that people can research their own trees. My idea to preserve my own story was born entirely out of my love for genealogy. One of my biggest hopes is that I can inspire people to begin studying their own family trees.
We are who we are because of everyone that came before us. Knowing about our own history helps us better understand the present and plan the future. Isn’t that a journey worth going on?
