I am certain that there are lots of folks out there who haven't got a clue about their Ancestors. Better still there are many out there who have not thought about their Ancestors. Life is fast, and the first thing you know ,things that you could have done or should have done cannot be so.
You run to the dictionary and look up Ancestor, the definition says Forefathers.Not much information there huh? Let's look up Forefather in the dictionary: Forefather : thoses from whom a father or mother descends or the earliest generations of a family or race. So should this interest us? Why would we care ? There are so many reasons for us to know about our Ancestors. An important reason could be medical. If we find a great grandfather or great grandmother who had Lupus for example,and one of our children has it, this could be it was passed down. When we go to the doctor the first thing he will ask is ,"Is there any cancer in your family" .So this is one reason to know about our Ancestors.Let's move to the future for a second. Today you and I are living, we are laughing,crying,we hurt, we love we get sick, we do something heroic or we become an important figure then we die. Period. Who is going to know about us? Who will know that we could dance, or sing, or we did something special like helping the poor countries or the homeless?
Not many people will remember us, all they will say oh he or she was a nice person,and that is it.
BUT if we take charge and write about ourselves, our hurts, our feats,our thoughts, why we love our children so and our grandchildren. Down the road one of our descendants will say oh this was my great grandfather, he was in the first world war! Awesome!. Now back to our Ancestors,what kind of people were they? Were they carpenters like our Father? Or did they play music like our Mother? Someone told me recently that they drive by a field and say to themselves "Who cleared this land in order for us to have this nice field? Who? Someone's Ancestor did this. Our roads? Well the roads long ago were not roads, but many were trails or paths in the woods. Who cleared these trails and paths that eventually became roads?Someone's Ancestors did. Walk through a cemetery, see the old stones. Mary Cormier died 1826 at the age of 65. Wow she was born in 1761 . What would it have been like back in 1761. If her mother had written a diary, maybe today we would know. There are some documents out there, which gives us an idea of how our Ancestors lived. It is up to us to find these hidden gems. It is up to us to bring our Ancestors to life, meaning bring back something about them to share with others. I personally have found lots of little tidbits about my Ancestors. My great grandmother planted an apple orchard by hand before 1929 when she died, she never saw that apple orchard bear fruit. Today that apple orchard is still there.
My great great grandfather sold his land to build a church, there is still a church on that land.
One of Ancestors was made prisoner during the Expulsion of the Acadians and brought to Boston and he was the first one to be released. The document explains details of his release . One of my direct Ancestor's brother was a guide led a group of people through the woods to safety .
See what I mean about caring and knowing about our Ancestors? So if you haven't got a clue how to find your Ancestors, there are lots of people willing to help, there is a lot of information online BUT all the information online is Not always correct. Do not believe all you hear unless there is some kind of proof. But find your lost Ancestors, they would want you to do so, if they did something bad? Well it is the truth, if they were heros, great, but the truth is the truth, we don't paint a pretty picture of our Ancestors if it is not the truth, we do not cover up what they did. Everyone in this world makes mistakes, and the mistakes are covered up ,hidden, but they are our mistakes, nobody is the world is perfect we are who we are and our Ancestors were who they were. But remember this: Without our Ancestors there would be no you and I.
1 comment:
You are so right in your blog. I find it so exciting when I find another ancestor and read about their way of life back then. They were courageous and hard working people and as a result, we are lucky to be able to live the way we do nowadays.
A Distant Cousin?
Zoe
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