Growing up I knew very little about my ancestors. The same stories played on repeat (though I still adored them) and only reached back within living memoryāwhatever my parents were familiar with. One family line, the āWardā clan, had been researched more thoroughly, going back about six generations. We have details about their lives, information to fill out the ādashā between the birth and death dates. The other family lines, however, were largely a mystery to me.
That is until I set off on a pandemic project last year to start building my family tree. It all stemmed from a single question that opened up a giant can of worms: How long had my ancestors lived on this land we call Canada? Of course, thatās not the only question I could have asked, but I needed a starting point.Ā (I answer this question at the bottom of this post).
After some digging, my tree suddenly stretched back to the Elizabethan era.
I grew up identifying with a handful of family names, as though these were the only ones that existed in my tree: Ward, Moore, Carter, Still, Harris. I had failed to grasp that, for each generation we go back to, we double the number of direct ancestors and add new surnames to the mix. Now I know I have Sawyer, Brown, Buchner, Wilder, Bruce, Skrine, Claxton, and more. I now realize just how big my tree is. When we do it in reverse, narrowing the chart down to me, I feel like a bit of a miracle knowing that all those people were required to result in my own existence.
Am I rambling here? I think itās because, until the past year, I had failed to recognize something so simple (yet mind-boggling!): that weāre only physically here because of those who came before us. And there is information to be found in our genes and the storylines of our family members.
At times Iāve felt like a wandering sheep in my family, not quite sure how I fit in (Iām guessing Iām not alone). š Yet, by looking back, Iāve found some kindred spirits in my own ancestry. The result of that information is that Iāve put less pressure on myself to fit in and instead found belonging knowing that the pool that I come from is more diverse and deviating than I ever thought before. While I thought I was blazing a trail that stemmed from that of my parents and grandparents, what Iām really doing is blazing a trail that stems from hundreds of trails that have crossed and diverged over centuries.
Now, you may not have access to information about your family heritage (nor may you have the desire to go digging, for one reason or another). I recognize my privilege in being able to source census reports and newspaper clippings, and that I come from a predominantly British/German/American background, meaning that information about my family has been documented over the years. But my insights reveal that we can ask questions about our families, which can open the door to new possibilities for us.
We are each a chapter in a great story, one that tells as many stories as there are people in our family tree (whatever that looks like). Itās up to us to decide what happens in the dash [ - ].
Photo: Pixabay on Pexels.
Whatās caught my attention latelyā¦ āØ
How about a list of the books currently sitting on my bedside table?
The Next Everest: Surviving the Mountain's Deadliest Day and Finding the Resilience to Climb Again (advanced reading copy), by Jim Davidson
This One Wild Life: A Mother-Daughter Wilderness Memoir, by Angie Abdou
Take Me Outside: Running Across the Canadian Landscape That Shapes Us, by Colin Harris
The Way of Integrity: Finding the Path to Your True Self, by Martha Beck
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, by Anne Lamott
Check these out tooā¦ š
The Wonders That I Find - My childrenās book is now available! šæ Got the book? Please leave a review on Amazon.
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Made it this far? I can tell you that the first of my direct ancestors to come to Canada was Johann Henry Buchner. In 1753, he immigrated from Germany to New Jersey, and then moved to Upper Canda with his family in 1786 to settle near present-day Welland, Ontario (on the traditional land of the Anishinaabeg, Ojibway/Chippewa and Haudenosaunee peoples). Iām writing a bit about him in my travel memoir, so Iāll save the story for the book (itās a good one!)
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