We each have two parents ….. and we each have four grandparents …. and eight great-grandparents …. then sixteen great great grandparents …. and so on until the numbers begin to boggle the mind.
If we are lucky we have known our grandparents and perhaps some of our great grandparents, but beyond that the chances of having known our ancestors declines quite rapidly until there is no chance at all that we could have known them.
Again, if we are lucky, we might know names back two or three or even four generations, but after that our ancestors become lost in the mists of time. Most people go through life neither looking for our roots nor caring if we find them. For those of us not among that group I just called the ‘most’ we turn to genealogy to discover what even our parents and grandparents probably never knew … where we came from 100, 200, 300 or more years ago. And we discover people who were born, married, had children and died … with names and stories. We discover that family names like Michael or Marguerite can go back many generations and even change in appearance. For instance the name Fidelius changes to Fidelis, Fidel and finally Del. Last names change too and the changes come from the passage of time and the change of customs as well as migration from one country to another. The changing of names and the migration from one country to another can make the search for our roots as mysterious and engrossing as a good murder mystery only much more frustrating because there is no conclusion …. some mysteries are solved only to be replaced by others. There is no end of the story.
You start your search with many questions and as you go along eventually most, but not usually all, of them get answered. You begin to meet relatives you never knew you had … some of which are closer in relationship than others … aunts, uncles, cousins. And then you begin to discover secrets and unknown facts about those relatives you know about. A second spouse you never knew about. A young child that died at far too early an age. A child born before a marriage. And that is only the beginning of the mysteries you can discover. And before you know it, although you have likely answered most of your original questions, you find that you have many more and as you find the answers to some of THEM, there are always additional ones that replace them.
The search for our roots is a wonderful thing. It gives you a sense of history and of family and the story OF your family. There are many branches in everyone’s family and each one is unique. Tracking your family tree isn’t something done in a day or a week or a month or even a year. People can spend their whole lives doing it and they always have a ‘brick wall’ somewhere. A place where they just can’t get further back from. A name only … no parents or dates to go with it and maybe not even a country. I have several brick walls and everyone I know that does genealogy has them. That is the frustrating part …. that and the fact that sometimes in moving forward you find a new fact that sets you back and you have to retrace some previously taken steps. VERY frustrating.
But the joy lies in knowing your family …. finding living relatives …. and discovering just how many people you have waiting on the other side for you. I found three more sets of grandparents (greats) tonight on a line that had, for me, ended in a brick wall. I tracked back THREE generations further. Now there are names to replace nameless people who are a part of my being … whose blood and genes make up my body … who will forever live as long as I live and as long as my children and their children live. That is the joy of genealogy.
