Do you ever wonder about your ancestors and what their lives must have been like? Do you sometimes feel as if there’s something missing from your life, but you can’t quite put your finger on it? Perhaps it’s because you don’t know enough about your family history. Digging up your family history can be an enlightening experience, bringing clarity to who you are as a person and where you come from. Genealogy has many benefits for the person carrying out the research and for their extended family too. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why digging up your family history and making a family tree is well worth the effort.
Table of Contents
Build a sense of self and identity
If you don’t know where you come from, you might be missing out on a vital part of being human. You can only fully understand who you are if you know where you have come from. Knowing where your strengths and weaknesses come from can help you to improve as a person. If you understand where your values and motivations come from, you can better understand your own behaviour. This can make you more self-aware and compassionate towards others, as well as towards yourself. Genealogy can also help you explore your potential career options by helping you to find people with your same skills and interests in the past.
Help you understand your values and motivations
Understanding where your values come from can help you better understand your motivations. Let’s say you come from a long line of people who were very religious. You’ve always lived by that value, but you’re not sure why. Digging up your family history can help you understand why you have certain values. This can help you to be more self-aware and compassionate towards others, as well as towards yourself. You can also learn about your motivations by looking at the values and actions of your ancestors.
Helps you understand why you feel the way you do
If you’ve ever felt confused or upset by your feelings, genealogy can help you to understand why you feel the way you do. Let’s say you feel guilty after inheriting money from a relative. You don’t feel that guilty about any of the other inheritances you’ve received, but for some reason this one has you feeling especially bad. Digging up your family history can help you to understand the feelings you’re having. Perhaps an ancestor of yours was extremely poor and struggled to provide for himself and his family. If so, you may feel guilty about inheriting money from them when you know how hard they worked for every penny.
Learn about your heritage and culture
Genealogy can help you to learn about the history of your family, your heritage and your culture. This can help you to understand why you are the way you are, as well as helping you to be more empathetic towards others. Let’s say you have family members who have always been very patriotic and proud of their country. You’ve never really understood their pride, as you don’t feel like you have much of a connection to your culture. Digging up your family history can help you to understand why they’re so proud. You may be descended from people who have contributed to your country in a significant way.
Help with understanding your relationships
Digging up your family history can help you to understand the relationships between you and your family members. Let’s say there is someone in your family whose behaviour you don’t completely understand. Perhaps they’re always starting arguments, or they’ve had a few financial problems. By digging up your family history, you can gain a better understanding of their behaviour. Perhaps they’re reacting to a similar situation that happened in the past. This can help you to be more compassionate towards them.
Conclusion
Genealogy can help you to understand yourself and your relationships better. It can help you to understand why you feel the way you do, as well as helping you to be more compassionate towards others. It can help you to learn about the history of your family, your heritage and your culture. It can also help you to understand the relationship between you and your family members, as well as your connection to your culture. Genealogy can be a fascinating and rewarding hobby. Digging up your family history can be an enlightening experience, bringing clarity to who you are as a person and where you come from.
