Question of the Week: How has researching your family history made you more thankful?

Question

Has researching your family history made you more thankful? If so, how?

Please tell us about it with an answer below. You could also answer on Facebook or share the question image with friends and family on social media to get them talking.

Answer 1

Researching my ancestors has made me so much more aware of the travels they made before planes and automobiles, and consequently their journeys were hard. I see most of them came from humble beginnings, and they had to work doing manual labor—without the many conveniences that I enjoy today.

My great grandmother Laura Lovelace and my great great grandmother Catherine Morris both died from complications of giving birth. This was something that I never knew before doing genealogy. I truly appreciate the sacrifices they made, and I hope that by doing genealogy and leaving behind memories of their lives that they will be honored by future generations.

Answer 2

I'm thankful, after 71 years, that I know where I came from, who I came from and the stories my family left behind. I would not have known any of that if not for WikiTree.   I am very thankful for all the hard work everyone behind the curtains at WikiTree has done to make this site the absolute best of its kind!  What words of thanks carry enough meaning to convey the feelings of gratitude for this site that helped us find our heritage?   Love you all!

Answer 3

I’m thankful for the hours spent absorbed in learning about my family. It kept my mind off the physical maladies I have for hours at a time. 

I also have learned so much about the history of people, and places. Why they migrated when and where they did now makes more sense to me. 

I’m thankful I was able to trace my Smith family. When I started doing ancestry, I assumed Smith would have been impossible. It wasn’t. The icing on the cake is that my Smith line started in the Netherlands not England like I assumed! I’m really a Smit. Sweet!

Thanks for sharing your information and expertise my fellow WT travelers. I’ve met a few cousins here and that is what life is about!

Blessings 

Answer 4

Realizing how many people had to survive to adulthood and then meet the person with that genetic mix which resulted in me being me has made me very grateful beyond words, and that has been increasingly so for almost half a century now. Grateful for these ancestors, both known and unknown, for their perseverance amid suffering, and for their love and compassion.

On a different perspective, I'm extremely grateful for the WikiTree team and everyone involved here for making this common collaborative tree possible. I've learned so much, including about life, the universe and everything. Thanks bunches! <3 <3 <3

Answer 5

Exploring my family history has deepened my gratitude in several ways. As someone enamored with history, I cherish the discoveries from the past. Reflecting on both the triumphs and the challenges faced by my ancestors offers a unique perspective on today's struggles.

Moreover, I'm profoundly grateful for the preservation of this legacy for future generations. Gathering and archiving this information not only weaves a narrative, but also gives upcoming generations the chance to unearth otherwise forgotten stories.

I'm particularly thankful for the translation of records to text, as they safeguard our history. In an age where cursive writing is fading, the work on this site will serve as timeless relics, providing invaluable insights for generations to come. Records we so fondly seek today will one day be akin to hieroglyphics. The work today preserves the essence of our past in a language that future minds can decode and appreciate.

Answer 6

Good evening, researching my family history made me feel more thankful because helped me "know" better some family members of mine that I never knew in life. In particular I have been taking care personally of the graves of my grandma's parents and sister and of the Rizzato family grave where my grandfather's parents and some siblings of his are buried. Before starting researching the were only half erased names written on a marble table for me but now I feel like they are part of who I am.

Answer 7

I guess I am most thankful for knowing history was recorded, although purposely misleading in some cases. It lies in records, stories and data sometimes forgotten and ignored yet, waiting to be awakened. Without a doubt, I know more about my family than anyone alive today or years past. I am aware that I, like everyone before me, will take secrets to the grave. I guess I am most thankful for not bearing the burden of infinite wisdom, no matter how interesting it would be.

Comments

K, thank you for your answer. I also know more about my family than anyone else alive, and I have felt that it was up to me to write their stories. I love what you wrote about secrets and not bearing the burden of infinite wisdom.

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My ancestors kept secrets, not wanting to burden the younger generations with knowledge of transgressions and the reasons for longstanding hatred. However, my inquiring mind wants to know what happened and why. Ceruti family mysteries are summarized here.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Ceruti_Family_Mysteries

Like both of you, I know more than anyone else in the family about our family, but it is still not enough. (Please shed light on these mysteries if you can.)

In any case, I forgive anything and everything that my ancestors and their families may have done, even awful things, and I send love throughout the past generations and to everyone on WikiTree.

Answer 8

I feel more spirtually connected, than years ago, because I have learned more, mostly on my own, very thankful to know, who they are, and mostly thankful, that my mom and grandmother, left me with a lot of photos, and write ups, that I would have never known, with out it.

Answer 9

Researching family history has made me more thankful; I know who I am and where I come from. The journey in life has been most rewarding to learn of the ancestors. I'm coming home when I open the door to WikiTree.com.  Thank you, Wikitree and everyone, for this beautiful site.

Answer 10

I am so thankful for the research I’ve been able to do on my family tree because I’ve learned so much about my extended family and I’ve have fun talking about my relatives with my mom. She has dementia and has troubles with recent events but she remembers a lot of things from when she was a child and it gets her telling me stories. She remembers when they first got electricity and then getting a refrigerator and that makes me very glad that I’ve always had those things.

Answer 11

We have so many blessings for which we can be thankful. I am thankful for modern medicine and advanced drugs. Some cousins suffered pain with the family autoimmune disease(s) for a substantial portion of their lives. For others, it was fatal. I suffered only until I found the right drugs. Cases in point:

Robert Bird Patton, arthritis

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Patton-5154

Emma Amelia Bird Muchmore, preeclampsia

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bird-8448

Answer 12

I feel most grateful that the people I have researched and found biographical and historic information - relatives and others - have become for me real people who feel close to me no matter how long ago they lived. I have a sense of connection with the places/countries in which they were born, lived and died, especially when I have visited these. The world and the centuries have shrunk. History has come alive.  I have a profound sense of the sufferings and successes, the strength and courage of their lives in demanding and precarious conditions, which makes me appreciate so much how fortunate I have been and am.

Answer 13

I'm thankful that I've been able to solve so many family mysteries, my own and for others. I feel that the work we do now will help future generations.

Answer 14

Searching for my ancestors has led me to find that I am a direct descendant of three of the Mayflower pilgrims!!!!

Yes, I am very thankful for that!

Answer 15

I am most thankful for all the sacrifices my family made for the future of this country, and for what they believe in.

Answer 16

It has made me thankful of all my ancestors who came before me and what they needed to go through for me to even be here.  Also very Thankful that I do not have to experience many of the everyday "normalcies" that the generations before me have cone through.