OMG! (Oh My Genealogy)

You might assume that discovering your family tree is a recent trend but you would be wrong. Genealogy has been around since Biblical times. Don’t believe me? Just open up your Bible to the book of Numbers. You’ll find lists and lists of families and descendants. God digs genealogy. Did you know you can even trace Jesus’ family line back to David, then back to Abraham, (Matthew 1:1-16) then back to Noah (Genesis 9, 10, 11) and finally back to Adam (Genesis 5)?! If God thinks heritage is important, shouldn’t we? This is why Bibles include (at least they used to) pages in the front for family information.

If you know me, you know what an advocate I am of interviewing your family on video or audio tape. As it turns out, the Bible is also a good example of preserving oral histories, as clearly illustrated by the four Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The authors of these books either experienced the events of Jesus’ life first-hand or had direct contact with someone who did. For example, in Luke 2, the author describes the first Christmas and adds “But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” (v. 19, NIV). This tells me that it is very likely the author actually sat in Mary’s presence interviewing her when she revealed this, probably first time.

Christmas is a time for sharing and giving. During this season, turn off the TV, the Wii and the Blackberry and give your family your attention. Share memories with each other. Treasure these things and ponder them in your heart.

Gift Ideas

Here’s a couple of genealogy-themed gift ideas.

I’ve seen picture frame stocking hangers in several stores and web sites and thought it would be cute if you had one for every member of your household with childhood photos in them. After all, Christmas brings out the child in us all.
This next one might take a little more work and planning. Put together a calendar for the coming year with birthdays and anniversaries of common ancestors. The upper page can display old family photos and/or facts about an ancestor. Looking at this for a month might lead to a revelation or you might start to recognize traits common with current family members.

Dibs

When the kids grow up, move out and get married, it becomes more and more rare that the whole family is together for Thanksgiving. This year was one of those rare years for my family. And since our grandmother passed away a few months ago, we decided to utilize this opportunity to go through her tiny, grandmother-sized house together and see if there was anything we each wanted to keep.

For many families, an event like this has the potential for arguments and hurt feelings. But for us, it went very well. I think it is due to the fact that me and my siblings are quite different. While they mostly looked for practical things that they could use or needed, I focused on finding objects with sentimental value. We all collected an heirloom here and a keepsake there, a family Bible here and a doily there. We all laughed and reminisced as we dug through the mementos.

This will be a Thanksgiving I’ll always remember.