Does geneology really matter?

Question

I used to be into looking up where my family came from. Then one day it hit me- maybe it doesn't matter! I'm right here, right now, and nothing is going to change if I know my great cousin twice removed was an Indian Princess. You know what I mean?
Do you agree?

Answer 1

If you don't know where you came from, how will you know who you are? Granted a lot of people grow up without any idea who they are and they do fine. But it is nice to be able to pass on to your children something about their ancestry. Most people like being a part of something and a family is usually a nice thing to be part of. Not necessary, but nice.
By the way, this "Indian Princess" thing was a European affectation. None of the men wanted to admit they had married a native woman, so they all said they married a Princess. Ask yourself, why would a Princess marry a foreigner? The native Americans did not have that kind of hierarchy. No Kings, no Queens and no Princesses.
I know that because I know I am 1/4 Cherokee and have studied native American history because I was curious about my own ancestors.

Answer 2

Yes it does because I have 2 cousins that had a baby together because they didn't know they were related and I had a friend that almost happened to also.
Some people it wont matter but I'm curious if there is an interesting family story in my past or how my family came to be and came to be scattered across N. America. So it really only matters if you want it to matter and if you don't want to have babies with a close relative.
Also genealogy is important for tracing genetic predisposition for a specific illness. It helped me learn why I have asthma and other illnesses that I came to develop in my short 18 years.

The thing that make it important to me is that when I was young people always asked me why I looked a certain way and I couldn't answer. As it turned out I learned that I looked that way because I was a hodgepodge of nationalities simlar to what people asked me that I never would have known otherwise. Another reason is because I'm one of the only people in my family that actually care where we came from and I want to make it so if future generations want to know I will have left something for them to know.

Answer 3

No more than crossword puzzles or fly fishing or studying the Civil War; it is a hobby, nothing more, nothing less. It gives satisfaction for hundreds of thousands of brilliant, witty, devilishly handsome people. It makes history come alive. About once in a million times, when a duke dies without issue or someone makes up a will with sloppy terms, it matters.

Courageous children have been born of cowards and vice versa. Vast wealth get frittered away by grandsons and granddaughters without a lick of business (or common) sense all the time.

If your grandfather had Huntington's Chorea, you probably know there is a 50% chance you'll get it, without tracking any further. If you know any of four of your grandparents were alcoholics, his / her / their example should be enough, without the sketchy research that says that the tendency to become one is maybe inherited a little.

There are fly fishermen who save up for five years to have a bush pilot deposit them at a lake somewhere close to the Arctic Circle for a week in July. They sleep in a tent, forego bathing and endure black flies for 7 days just so they can catch and release arctic char as thick as a man's leg and a yard long. They take pictures and bring 20 - 30 pounds of smoked filets home; not much return on the investment, to normal people's way of thinking, but they remember the week for the rest of their lives. Most of us just go to the fishmonger and pay for a couple of pounds of salmon. When it comes to vacation, we go to Maui or Boston or Paris. Different people have different hobbies. Genealogy is mine.

Answer 4

Yes, that's one way of looking at it. Or you could remember that you are the sum total of all your predecessors, as well as the family and friends you grew up with. The genes in you now--which give you your hair and eye color, your height and general build, also a predilection for some disorders--came from everyone before you.
When I was younger I had no interest in such things either, so my guess is that you're under 40, right? As you get older, for some strange reason you want to connect more with your past. Maybe, maybe not. But in the long run, no, it really doesn't make a difference, unless you want it to.

Answer 5

I have search for stories of my ancestors for about 11 years. It is important to me to know who they are. It has made me appreciate life more knowing of the struggles they went through to make a better life for all of me.

I have a poem that inspired me to write my personal history and to write all I learned about my ancestors.

I want to leave a legacy for my posterity. If you don't mind , I will add this poem.


Strangers In The Box

Come, look with me inside this drawer,
In this box I've often seen,
At the pictures, black and white,
Faces proud, still, serene.
I wish I knew the people,
These strangers in the box,
Their names and all their memories
Are lost among my socks.
I wonder what their lives were like,
How did they spend their days?
What about their special times?
I'll never know their ways.
If only someone had taken time
To tell who, what, where, or when,
These faces of my heritage
Would come to life again.
Could this become the fate
Of the pictures we take today?
The faces and the memories
Someday to be passed away?
Make time to save your stories,
Seize the opportunity when it knocks,
Or someday you and yours could be
The strangers in the box.
Pamela A. Harazim.

Answer 6

I agree with some of what you say, but I think it is important to know where ones people came from. I am more proud of being English than of being North American.

Answer 7

It's only as important as you feel. Everyone has a different reason for researching their history.

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Answer 8

♥ ♥you are right, nothing will change but I find it interesting to do genealogy...if you remember that history repeats itself we just might be able to learn something from our ancestors... and in some way it helps us understand why our parents and grandparents were the way they were. ♥ ♥

Answer 9

yes