Every once in a while, I look into my family history. Most of it is fairly well known, whether through family stories or actual records, though there are a few details which are difficult to come across. Each time I look, different connections appear and I have even found photos of relatives who died long before I was born - as well as the cousins I have never met who have the pictures in the first place.
What is it about family history that is so fascinating? For myself, it's the fact that family history is a personal connection to history overall. By tracking your family history, you can get a sense of how historic events had an impact on ancestors, and your very existence. For instance, three quarters of my grandparents moved to Canada in the 1920s from Germany, which naturally leads to understanding a bit more about what was happening after World War I, and how that affected regular people around the world - but specifically how that affected regular people who would go on to have my parents, who eventually met and had me. For many people living today, the two World Wars are going to be a key part of their family story, and each family was impacted in their own way by the events, giving a personal connection to a well documented and significant part of history.
It's the same thing no matter how far back you go. It's easy to see the broad strokes of historic events if you read history books, they cover the key moments in the past and are focused on the wide-ranging impact of the different things that happen in the past. But they are focused on a much broader impact, because that is the best documented and the most likely be of interest to the most people. Family history takes those events and distills them down into small stories that are more personally relatable. It's easy to ignore history if you believe you are not connected to it, but when you see that history is a primary reason why you exist in the first place, it makes it feel much more vital.
It's also something that can give an idea of how much of an impact people can have, whether or not they realize it. One couple will have kids that spread out around the world, and each one leaves a trail. Even if they personally don't have a big impact on world events, their children might, and at the bare minimum they are responsible for your own existence. It's reassuring in a small way, because it shows that what you do matters in the long run, since each person changes the world around them, whether that impact is large or small it is still important and vital, and a key part of the makeup of the world as it is now.
As we move into a new year, it is time to reflect on the past, the many events that have allowed us to see 2014, and the different things that have all conspired to put us in the precise place where we are today. It's the result of billions of people through history, all of whom have their own stories and their own reasons for doing the things they did. By looking at family history, we can get a sense of some of them, and their story is inevitably a vital part of our own. After all, whether you are descended from the important or the obscure, their story has one direct result, and you are that result. In the future, maybe you will be the mystery your descendents will research.
