Michelle Obama and How Genealogy Tells Us Who We Really ArePosted by Administrator on October 14th, 2009

The revelation that First Lady Michelle Obama’s family history extends back to a white Georgian slaveowner and a slave returned the national spotlight to genealogy. Indeed, it casts a spotlight on the fact that underneath every celebrity, politician, and average joe is a rich story, a family history. 
 
So often we like to define ourselves and others by occupation. We introduce ourselves, "I’m a banker" or "I’m a soccer mom." Others prefer to define themselves by ethnicity. "I am Korean." "I am a Hungarian Jew." Still others pick neighborhood or socio-economic status as their identifier. But are any of these what really define us? At best, they represent a very short-term, rootless worldview. At worst, they represent a forgetting of our true roots.
 
Study after study has shown that family history has a stronger bearing on one’s development and personality than occupation, location, economic status, or even ethnicity. Not too long ago, people identified themselves as the son or daughter of their father or of the house of a certain family. They understood the link from them back to their ancestors and the value that created. It was social capital, as long as your family was respectable. In our individualist society, however, all traces of this practice are being wiped away and with it our conscious ties to the past.
 
Michelle Obama was known as the First Lady, a fierce legal practitioner, and a community organizer. Thanks to genealogy she is also now known as the successful daughter of black slaves, a symbol of the slow redemption of African Americans from the blight of slavery. What do you think drives her more or shapes her character? I’m willing to bet it’s the latter.


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Overcoming Family History Dead EndsPosted by Administrator on October 6th, 2009

What do you do when you come to a big dead end in your family history research? Genealogists rely on physical records, like baptism, marriage, or death records, to complete each part of their family tree. But when these records have been lost, damaged, or never existed in physical form, family history research is stopped dead in its tracks.

Take my Japanese side, for instance. There are a few things we know about my great-grandfather. We know he was named Takei. We know he left Japan as a boy to travel with a Chinese circus (yes, a circus). We know the circus eventually traveled to Hawaii and that Takei opted to stay in Hawaii rather than return to the Orient. Then, on its way back to Asia, the ship struck a reef and sank, taking its manifests and records with it. Takei was befriended and eventually adopted by a British official and his family, his name becoming Takei Doyle.

Because Takei left Japan in secret and the ship’s manifest was lost, there are many things we don’t know about him. We don’t know if Takei was his first name or his family name. We think he may have been from the farmland around Mt. Fuji, but we can’t be sure. In fact, our family has been to Japan several times to search out clue to Takei’s origins with no luck. In our pedigree chart, Takei represents a big stop sign.

I have heard of many family history researchers who have encountered this very situation and been able to make a connection with a distant relative by chance or by miracle. The internet makes it easier for different branches to hook up and eliminate these loose ends.

My family hopes to locate Takei’s family someday. How that will happen we do not know.

When you come up to a roadblock like this, how do you get past it? What tricks and tools do you use to find that missing piece?



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5 Ways to Make Your Own Great Family HistoryPosted by Administrator on September 12th, 2009

No doubt, family history is a great way to build your family’s sense of togetherness. With a shared sense of where you come from and what your ancestors accomplished, parents and children tend to share stronger bonds as a united tribe instead of as a group of strangers living under one roof.

Still, some genealogists dig into their family’s past only to find a collection of scoundrels or criminals. In these cases, family history can be an embarrassing exercise, digging up secrets many would rather keep buried.

In either case, your family’s present is as important as its past. After all, what good is investing so much time in researching your ancestry if you are squandering your time with your own immediate family. What good is searching out the great stories of the past if you are only creating bad stories your descendants will want to forget about. In short, as you are learning more about your roots, don’t forget to nurture your branches.

To help you create some great stories for your descendants to cherish, here are five suggestions:

  1. Eat dinner together. Study after study has proven that families who eat dinner together at the table have fewer interpersonal problems. In fact, children of these families do better in school, careers, and future relationships. Most importantly, parents and children establish a time when they can communicate and enjoy each other’s company. So, no matter how busy your family gets, set time aside to partake of a warm meal around your dinner table every night with everyone present. A little scheduling will build relationships you and your descendants will treasure.
  2. Take family vacations. With all of the money we pour into large purchases like electronics, vehicles, or clothes, few things have been found to promote personal and family happiness like family vacations. Studies have shown that, while stress actually increases with the purchase of new automobiles or big-screen TVs, family vacations reduce stress greatly and increase the lifetime achievement of family members. So plan and take that trip to the Grand Canyon or even a weekend camping trip. Children don’t forget these experiences and neither will parents. When the car has gone to dump and the TV is obsolete, you will still have golden memories to pass onto your progeny.
  3. Show up at big events. There are some events that have special meaning. We remember what happens at these events more than we normally would. Birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, big sporting events, recitals, school plays, holidays, weddings, and funerals are some of these big events. When these events happen, be there. Don’t let cares of the everyday exclude you from the events that everyone will always remember and that will never come again.
  4. Make time for one on one. You probably know that each member of your family is a unique individual with his or her own talents, worries, and accomplishments. Studies show that children and spouses who receive one on one attention report much higher levels of satisfaction with their families and higher achievement in other areas of life.If you have children, spend time with each one individually. Take them to the store or to a restaurant, and ask them what is happening their life. If you are married, go out on dates regularly and make it special, even if it is just a candlelight dinner in your basement.
  5. Tame the tongue. Few things can uplift and strengthen people like words can. On the other hand, few things can cause lasting harm like words. Countless families have been broken up by careless words often said in anger or haste. Sadly, these words can be remembered for generations, overshadowing whatever good memories there may have been. Don’t let careless words ruin your family bonds or turn your family history into a tragedy. Learn today to give more praise than criticism. Start today to avoid negative comments and find positive things to say. Learn to be patient and humble. Your words will build a family legacy of healthy, bond-building communication and love.


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