Why family members are important?

Answer 1

Family Trees have no essential importance to a family or to an individual in that family. Curiosity may be to governing factor in knowing ones ancestor's. Family trees help us to understand ourselves much better when we know that we are of a lineage of farming stock folk or some other occupation, or someone of importance, such as aristocracy. It also helps us find our lineage, as to which of the twelve tribes of Israel we came through. I come thought the lineage of Ephraim. It may be of interest to know just where our ancestors were born and their circumstances. I look up what things of importance that were taking place at the time of my ancestors. What clothing was worn, their homes etc. The average family, if lucky, may go back as far as the 1500's or even earlier.

Answer 2

Scientists and researchers are finding more and more genetic and lifestyle causes for disease. A family health tree will show the history of health issues that tend to "run" in your family. Especially now, with so many blended families, it is common for people to have no idea what diseases their grandparents had or the reason for their deaths. All parents should develope a family health tree for their children. It could save their life.

Answer 3

Researching your family tree can make your life more meaningful. It can give you a whole new outlook of your place in the world. For example, finding that you are a direct descendent of many early settlers who founded now well known cities and towns can be quite exciting. Once you trace your family tree back a few hundreds of years (which is quite easy to do at sites such as Ancestry.com) you read history from a different perspective. You realize your many times great grandparents were there as founders, first school masters, ministers, sheriffs, weavers, carpenters, farmers, judges, etc. They were brave, adventurous, hard working pilgrims and immigrants who were surprisingly mobile.

It is quite exciting to read a town history and recognize your eighth great grandfather as the tavern keeper who hosted town meetings to protest taxes or that your eighth great grandfather in another line was the first schoolmaster of Hartford in 1663. It is very enlightening to find that your ancestors in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had large families, twelve or fourteen children or more, and those large families helped the lines to live on even after half of the family died from a flu epidemic or Indian attack.

The study of your genealogy helps you to understand who you are.