Farmer Branches

So did you just get done watching Braveheart or Gladiator and you are sitting there wondering if you are distantly related to William Wallace or Marcus Aurelius? How about wondering whether you have any relatives in a neighboring state or even the new city you live? Have you every thought about researching your family heritage?

In ancient times, records of relatives were kept either through word of mouth (passed on through the generations) or written on stone and papyrus. Luckily for those of us living in modern times we have helpful tools like the internet and the local library. Discovering your grandpa’s cousin could be as simple as clicking a mouse button or driving down the street and fishing through a few obituaries.

For some people, preserving family heritage and history is an important part of holding onto our immortality. Knowing the history of relatives: how they lived, where they worked, literature they published, inventions they made, mistakes they made, and so forth can often times give us valuable insight into who we are as individuals.

Imagine how fun it would be to entertain guests at a party with wild tails about your great great grandmother’s grocery store out on the frontier plains of the wild west, or your clan’s participation in the Scottish Rebellion of 1314. Such stories are waiting out there for your discovery. What do you have to lose?

Filed under: Uncategorized on May 30th, 2011