Tag: family tree

March 11th Genealogy Day

March Holidays

Curious about where you came from? Maybe you should start a family tree and try and track down who and where your relatives came from. You can have DNA tests done to try and get information but you have to be careful, sometimes the info you pay for isn’t exactly accurate. They say there is a 50% chance someone in your family had blue eyes and there may, or may not, be members of your family that have had red hair. Well duh! Family records are the best way to trace where you come from, you may not find out all you want to know but at least you know what you find is true. Today was created by the Christ Church United Presbyterian and Methodist church in Limerick, Ireland in 2013.

How to celebrate – Find out where you come from. Find out who yo are related to. Check with other family members if they have ever done a family tree.

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December 23rd Roots Day

December holidays, Unboxing the Bizarre

Who are we really? Where do we come from? Do we have heroes in our past? Criminals? Assassins? Royalty? There was a story in my family about a member who lived in the UK as a farmer and came upon a Knight that had fallen from his horse and couldn’t get up because of the heavy armor. The farmer helped the Knight to his feet and a grateful King of England awarded him the title of the Earl of Nottingham. As the story continues, he became Robin Hood. I seriously doubt any of this happened, but it was written down in a book stating it from the 1600’s.

The other side of the family has always believed it came from Scotland and every indication was that it did… but the family crest and name comes from Germany. Does it make me any different? No. It does make me think, but that’s it.

Holding anybody accountable for past members of their family is ridiculous. Whatever those family members did, or didn’t do, has no bearing on you now. The world have evolved over the years, so have people, what our fore-fathers did, had to do and the mistakes they made have been corrected where they could be. To hold anyone accountable for the sins of their fathers is only showing the shortness of the sons.

It is fine to be proud of your heritage and in a few cases, it does make you who you are, what you own, how much money you have and titles you may hold… but it doesn’t make you who you are as a person. Remember that as you teach your way of life to your children.

How to celebrate – Study your genealogy. Give a heritage kit for Christmas. Never take yourself too seriously.

July 26th Aunt and Uncle’s Day

July Holidays, Unboxing the Bizarre

When we generally think of our aunts and uncles it is with fond thoughts and fun in mind. After all they come from the same stock as our mother or father but don’t have the same discipline issues. So they are more fun, they are more interesting, and in many, many cases, they are a lot weirder!

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Aunts are the sisters to our father or mother, most have normal lives like the rest of the family members, but some step away from the norm and live lives much different than we know. If they have children of their own they are more likely to react just as our parents do, but if they do not have children, they may have become airline flight attendants, princesses, mermaids at a theme park, or even political figures.

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Whether they are “normal” or not, they are a part of the family and generally love their nieces and nephews, sometimes treating them like their own. They are fun because they don’t have to put up with us 24 hours a day and may have had the opportunities in life few others have.

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Uncles, on the other hand, are generally strange. They don’t mean to be, but they are.  Naturally they can be normal people but we always wonder if they are some sort of international spy, a wealthy tycoon, or a deep sea diver.

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Whether they are spies or mermaids it doesn’t really matter. We are always happy to see them, want them around more, and wish them all the happiness in the world.

How to celebrate – Call your aunts or uncles, or both and wish them a happy Aunt and Uncle’s Day. See how many of your aunts and uncles you can remember (this includes all the cousins!) Relate a story to the rest of your family about the strangest aunt or uncle you have.

December 23 Roots Day

December holidays, Unboxing the Bizarre

Who are you, where did you come from, do you have any famous relatives? Well today is the day to try and find out. It’s Roots Day, celebrated for over 40 years.

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Most of us are interested in where our families came from. Some names are easy to track back, others are not… like Smith or Jones… but no matter what your name is,  there is a history that goes along with it. (That is unless you are a test-tube baby.)

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I can only use my own family as an example. We don’t know a lot about them but we have found a few interesting tidbits. One of my grandmothers relatives all lived in Scotland and Ireland. One lived in a little known shire named Nottingham. He was a peasant and one day while roaming the woods he found a Knight had fallen from his horse and in all that armour couldn’t get back up. So being the kind and helpful create he was, he was probably a thief and looking for a quick coin, he helped the Knight to his feet, and then onto his horse. As the story goes it happened to be the King he had helped up and the King made him the Earl of Nottingham for his actions. In legend, the Earl of Nottingham was the basis for the story of Robin Hood. Now, we all know Robin Hood was fiction, and probably so is this story, but it was written by a genealogist in the UK so who am I to say!

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My other grandmother proudly held a document that entitled her to the Daughters of the Revolution claiming that one of her relatives served as an officer in Washington’s Guard during the Revolutionary War. Who’s to say, I wasn’t there but it’s fun to imagine one of my relatives was. There are all sorts of trails my family has going back in time, some good, some bad and some (Like Robin Hood) probably totally fabricated. But you know what, it doesn’t matter. It makes for fun conversation and adds a little pride to the family name, real of not.

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So why not with the holidays coming up, family gathered for the holiday and no one wants to talk about politics anymore, find out a little about your family tree. It may not lead you to the roots you wanted but at least you’ll know a little more about who your family is and what the accomplished.

How to celebrate – Investigate your ancestory. Start your own family tree. Make up your own history and try on get your family to believe it!