Question of the Week: What has researching your ancestors made you thankful for? [closed]

+26 votes
1.9k views

With Thanksgiving in the U.S. coming up, we'd love to know what researching your ancestors has made you thankful for.

I think for me I'm always in awe and thankful for all the choices my ancestors made that led to the existence of me and the life I have. It's kind of amazing when you stop and think about it!

(Of course it's also made me thankful for WikiTree so I have a place to put all my research!)

How about you?

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in The Tree House by Eowyn Walker G2G Astronaut (2.4m points)
closed by Chris Whitten
I am thankful for finding family members that I never knew about through research and DNA.
Thank you. And the nice thing is that I was easily accepted after DNA and  I verified my father and I had the same blood type. Also nice to know they're from Italy.  No wonder I love pasta so much lol.
Thank you! It was truly a miracle
I am grateful for my ancestors as well as my immediate family. We may not have much going on as "famous" people as so many search for but we are family. Even though I have hit the wall wherever it has occurred, I am grateful for each and everyone of them. Wish I could spend a Thanksgiving with each family.
Women's Rights!
I for one am thoroughly AMAZED to be standing here, born etc in view of what little I have gleaned from the history of the USA and mortality rates and all the other stuff that happened.
I am thankful for all the genealogy history I've been learning and for the courage my ancestors had, especially after immigrating to America. I love history (though I was an English major in college but studied history, art history, music history, as well as literature) and it's been fun to learn about my ancestors.
I am thankful that I have ancestors who chose to come to Australia.
It has been an amazing experience to find out about my Great Grandparents. I didnt know much about them at all , three sets were UK born.  Im a New Zealander with parents and Grandparents who were busy establishing them selves in a new country so sadly the family history never got passed down.  I allways thought my maternal Great Grandmother was Welsh ??....well Great Grandma Keats is from Cornish stock thorough and through with a facinating seafaring linage, her father (my grt grt Grandfather a 'Master Mariner!!'.   Im throughly enjoying researching my family tree during 2020 Covid-19 lockdown. Its a facinating journey and Im learning so much. I feel like im getting a peek into the past.
Modern appliances! I have recently written a novel based on the lives of my sixth great-grandparents, which meant further research into their life and times. Just washing the clothing was an ordeal.

Fetching the 30 gallons of water from the creek or river, and then allowing it to settle (sentiment). Bringing that water to a boil over a hot fire, using lye-soap, stirring the water about with a bucking bat. Using a box-mangler (to squeeze out the water) after rinsing the clothing in clean water with some bluing thrown in (made with a Bluing agent: starch mixed with indigo) to help make the whites white again. Oi!

Then the items were laid across bushes until they dried. Ironing was a must (and now I understand why underwear was ironed, too) using a box-iron. Hot coals are loaded into the box portion of the iron and from there you pressed the wrinkles from the items. Talk about a hot mess. Mostly the laundry was only done during the warmer months. The first good day after winter often required a whole months' worth of clothing and other items be washed.

No thank you. I complain just having to fold the stuff from the dryer!

56 Answers

+5 votes
That every single one of my ancestors has come together to make me me, and that they all somehow left their own story/legacy.
by
+4 votes

That every single one of my ancestors has come together to make me me, and that they all somehow left their own story/legacy.

by
+10 votes
Modern medicine.  A visit to a 19th century cemetery full of child graves makes me so thankful of the advances we've made.
by SJ Baty G2G Astronaut (1.2m points)
edited by SJ Baty
+5 votes
I’m thankful my ancestors, both near and far, were strong enough to endure so many infant deaths. Most seemed resourceful & industrious. And I wouldn’t trade places with any of the women who bore babies every year for sometimes 2 decades with no outside help or great wealth. They were survivors of personal and national hardship. I hope my descendants are as grateful to me for hanging in there, never giving up, keeping faith. I hope I can do that!
by
+5 votes
It has been a fascinating journey uncovering the story of our family. It makes me feel part of something bigger than myself. The detective work has been very satisfying. I am grateful for all my ancestors endured to bring our families where we are. I am third generation American. All my Great Grandparents settled in Chicago in the late 1800s. Some came as couples, others came as young single people starting a new life in a new country. Their courage and determination are inspiring.
by
+7 votes
I am thankful that my 20 years of research has uncovered my biological father's family. What a rich history I have found!
by Patty Almond G2G6 Mach 1 (17.7k points)
+6 votes
I am thankful for vaccinations. One entry in the parish records was at the end 6 burials: “All six of this couple’s children died this week of the dreaded disease DIPTHERIA”.

I am thankful for contraception and the right to use it.

I am thankful that the Québécois finally threw off the yoke of the Catholic Church. Shaming babies for the mistakes of their parents, shaming young, uneducated  women for falling prey to usually older, married men. Demanding large families, often more than 20 children per woman, ensuring women remained illiterate and died young.

I am thankful for modern maternal care in Canada, so many of my ancestresses died in childbirth.

I am thankful for central heating, one family suffered the death of three of their children, they were discovered frozen in the morning.

And finally I am thankful for all modern medical care and modern comforts. May all the people of the world have access to healthcare, a warm (or cool) place to live, enough food fo keep from hunger and a peaceful existence to live out their best selves.
by Mama Kiki Lajeunesse G2G6 Mach 2 (23.3k points)
+5 votes
I am very thankful for my ancestors' bravery and courage: in getting on a ship and spending months at sea to come to a completely unknown territory without, often, even knowing the language spoken here; for traveling on horseback or more often for my relatives, by foot, through land still inhabited by wild animals; for managing the hardships of no running water, wood heat, poor insulation, scarce food at times, etc. with a strong faith and perseverance. They have inspired me during times when I have had to face a difficult move (hardly difficult compared to theirs) or times of being separated from my own family or my whining about having to scrape the windshield before driving to work in the morning. It puts my own struggles in a very different perspective!
by Beverly Tamanini G2G2 (2.7k points)
+7 votes

I shudder to think of all of the things my ancestors didn't have! Here are a few for which I am thankful, in no particular order:

  • Air conditioning
  • Epidurals
  • Indoor toilets
  • Running water and daily showers
  • Contraceptives
  • E-books
  • Refrigeration
  • GPS
  • Dental floss and novocaine  
  • My car and the interstate highway system
  • Cocktail ice
  • Smartphone (most of the time)
  • Headphones
  • Antibiotics and vaccines
  • Religious freedom
  • Calculator, Yelp, camera and texting on my phone
  • Washing machine
by Lisa Mullings G2G6 Mach 1 (18.5k points)
+6 votes
I am thankful I've benefited from many things they fought so hard for--so many various types of freedoms and rights. I hope they would look upon me and be proud of me, as I am of them, and know their hardships were not in vain, and they continue to be loved and appreciated.
by Anonymous Macomb G2G Crew (380 points)
+6 votes

I am thankful for the multitude of modern conveniences our ancestors did not have.  My grandpa lived most of his life in a run-down rented house in the country; outhouse, no running water, coal-burning stove, kerosene lamps, no phone.

by
+6 votes
I am thankful to learn about my roots. I have ancestors who fought on both sides of the Civil War. I have an ancestor who would have been a part of the Cherokee Trail of Tears if she had not married a white southern man. My work on one line stopped in the 1850s until recently when Ancestry.com connected me with added generations that go back into the 1200s. Marvelous to find the connection to those who have gone before. I have a rich heritage that I did not know existed!
by
+6 votes
Thanks to WikiTree and Walter Steesy who have inspired me to start a web page for family that I haven't seen or heard from in 50 years!! We're all posting old family photo, obituaries and my favorite, memories of my parents and grandparents!
by Catherine Olmstead G2G2 (2.9k points)
+4 votes
The Puritans
by Martyn Mulford G2G6 Mach 2 (29.8k points)
+5 votes
I am grateful for the many ancestors whom I have come across and how brave and knowledgeable they were. Even those who could not read were very intelligent and capable and I enjoy learning about their accomplishments.                                                                                       I am in awe of a 5 x's great grandmother who was born in 1779 who came early to Ohio. She had 13 children, 130 grandchildren (this is documented), and she was written up in an article in the Chillocothe Leader Newspaper just a few months before she died at age 105. She had over 1000 descendants,  was still using a spinning wheel, still sewing, doing dishes, and enjoying her family at that great age, though she had had a stroke 3 years prior (she called it a 'paralysis'). Reading about her, how hard she worked, how much she accomplished, and all she managed to do, makes her a hero in my book. I hope to meet her one day in heaven.                                                                        Learning about so many of my ancestors who came here for religious reasons (persecution in Germany for not being Roman Catholic), coming to Pennsylvania and being contemporaries and peers of William Penn.   For all the ancestors/family who fought in battles and wars, from battles in Europe to the wars here in America- French and Indian War, Revolutionary, War of 1812, Civil War, Spanish American, WWI, WWII, Korean, Vietnam, The Gulf War, and Afghanistan.                                     I am grateful that God brought my ancestors to America to begin a new life in a new country where there were so many opportunities. From the 1600's to the late 1800's, my ancestors flowed from other countries into America and for this I am very grateful.                                                      I give thanks to God for all the blessings he has afforded me in having such a rich heritage and putting me into the family from which I belong. As imperfect as my family is (as all are), I am grateful for them all.        As I continue to flesh out ancestors and discover who they were, I am sure I will find more to be thankful for concerning my ancestry. I am especially grateful for all the strong Christian ancestors who lived for the Lord and did many good things in order to bring Him glory. What a wonderful heritage I have been given.
by Lori Smith G2G6 (7.8k points)
+5 votes
I am thankful for my ancestors who struggled on farms to raise their families without sufficient education to obtain better jobs, if they were available. They came from North Carolina to Georgia to enable getting land for farming and better weather conditions. I am thankful that one of my ancestors gave his life in the Civil War for beliefs that he upheld. He died of disease in Atlanta as did so many soldiers on both sides.
by
+5 votes
I am thankful that the vast majority of my ancestors came to America in the 1600's and 1700's. It makes me feel that my roots are here, though I am not Native American. I am thankful that my ancestors survived both the Revolutionary and Civil wars. I am thankful that very few of my ancestors owned any slaves. I am thankful that all my ancestors were Unionists during the Civil War. I am thankful that my ancestors did not kill any Native Americans. I am thankful that my ancestors moved west, so I am a 2nd generation California native. (I do feel guilty that my family was party to stealing North America, but anyone who is not Native American or a new immigrant is in that boat.)
by Alison Gardner G2G6 Mach 8 (82.0k points)
+5 votes
Mortality rates, particularly of women giving birth. It was an extremely dangerous business and sadly, still is in many parts of the world.
by Peter Larsen G2G Crew (390 points)
+6 votes
Pioneer women - I am currently tidying up a number of profiles from my own community, the community where my 3xgreat grandparents settled in the Nelson District. These profiles belong to people who were their friends and neighbours. What strikes me is that the women are often so invisible. Their obituaries don’t even use their first names. They must have worked so hard and I’ve always wondered if they actively consented to emigrate from the UK to New Zealand. I’m so thankful  for their commitment to a new country and their willingness to push for reforms like women’s rights to property and the vote. There’s a poem called “Photographs of Pioneer Women” by Ruth Dallas which really sums them up.
by Fiona McMichael G2G6 Pilot (208k points)
+6 votes
I found a brother whom I didn't know existed!
by Janis Martin G2G Crew (700 points)

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