Writing a Personal History Can Be Hard

1 February 2016

I have been asked to teach a family history lesson this coming Sunday, for Relief Society. As I was studying and reading and looking for information....I thought to myself, what a great personal history we create when we write a blog or participate in Facebook or some of the other online places where we share with one another.  

We journal almost every day about our comings and goings.  We tell things that in some instances we would not share with friends, must less, strangers.  Then I began to wonder, why do we do that?  

Why do we tell people on FB about our struggles, our victories, our sorrows, our jobs, our homes, our illnesses, our future plans, things that we would like to have happen, but never do, how our children are doing in school, what we had for dinner, or about that party that is coming up to celebrate a special occurance in our lives or the lives of our loved ones?  

Maybe we do it as a way of going back to the days that we wrote letters to family members and friends.  I heard recently that the reason that we love Irish Music if we have Irish ancestors or we love animals, or we have a special affection for reading or painting is because of somethingI just learned about, called "genetic recall".  It's in our genes.  Can you imagine that.  How important are our ancestors to who we are today.  

I am sure that some of my ancestors were better letter writers than others.  I love to read about their goings and comings.  So what has changed....nothing really.  Just the way that we communicate things that years ago we would have written in a letter are now communicated quickly online.

I can imagine my great Aunt Ota, sitting in her special chair (She was a very tiny lady and had trimmed some off of the legs to make it fit her petite frame) writing about the "Travel Club" she belonged to. They did not really travel, but read books about places they would love to go, but never would be able to, and then would report it to their friends who belonged to the same,  very special "Travel Club".  They went all over the world, but never left home.  

So as I ponder the lesson I will be giving this coming Sunday, I will be thinking about my ancestors and their lives and how who they were, affects who I am today and who you are. Happy personal family history writing to you.  It's in your genes.