Looking Back in Order to Live Life Fully
I’m fascinated by my “Heinz 57” American heritage. You know what I’m talking about, right? The concoction of blood that runs through my veins (and maybe/probably yours) is made up of so many different tribes of people it resembles the steak sauce Heinz 57. By that, I mean it’s hard to say that my heritage comes from any specific country or land therefore I am American. This conglomerate of history in the genealogy of the lives of American citizens is what we all have in common. We come from a various compilation of statures and look, and colors of skin with beginnings which span from across the globe as well as right originate right here on this country’s very soil.h
Oh, I hadn’t truly thought about the history of my lineage for most of my life. It was easier to fascinate myself with my career and family – that is, my contemporary family. It never dawned how the members of my family in the past could affect my life in any way. How a person I could never know may make an impact on me was unfathomable to my analytical mind.
And then my mind went haywire and cut my legs out from under me… literally. My life was turned upside down and I began looking for something – anything – to take it off the pain which filled my days and nights. Anything to distract and keep my thoughts off of it. Hobbies, projects, things to do that didn’t take too much energy or thought. Since I love history and analytical processes, one of those things turned out to be genealogy, the study of family ancestral lines.
What I discovered? I absolutely love delving into my my family history and those responsible for it. The people, places, and things they have done. Checking attics, garages, closets and basements for those shoe boxes and old family Bibles and asking family members for those old names they may remember or the lists they may have of births, deaths, and marriages of long lost relatives.
In other words, I am having fun! Now I understand many people don’t like doing things like this because of the privacy issue. Trust me, there is nothing I am doing or sharing that is not already public knowledge. Documentation is “out there” for the public pickings. Birth, death, and marriage certificates, census information, school class and graduation information, church records for births, christenings, baptisms, and deaths, newspaper articles, weddings, and obituaries, etc. It’s there. I merely had to learn how to access it and differentiate it. Then verify it.
What have I discovered so far? Who I am descended from? Or believe I am descended from at this time? (per familysearch.com)
- I am an indirect Mayflower Direct Descendant. (Strange but true.)
- I am a multi-Revolutionary War Direct Descendant. (Multiple ancestors.)
- I am a multi-dual Civil War Direct Descendant (Both sides.)
- I am a multi-President Descendant.
- I am a multi and varied country royal Descendant.
- I am a prominent multi-literary, scholar, scientist, artist, musician, and author Descendant.
- I am a multi and varied original and subsequent native and Christian immigrant Descendant.
Over the last seven years, I learned much about genealogy. How to do it, both right and wrong. Many different ways to research it. Which documentation is valid and not valid. The resources to use for research and how to piece together information. And of course, to tread carefully through the minefield of history plagued with holes of information due to wars, fires, natural disasters, and poor record-keeping. The most important fact of all? Duplication, triplication, and back-up, back-up, back-up is the only way to verify and keep the information found on the journey down memory lane and must be executed carefully as to not create serious errors in the record and your own ancestry.
My family heritage is intricate and complicated but amazing. It’s also NOTHING compared to my husband’s. My ancestry is grounded in the founding of this great land from the first landing on its shores to the very establishment of its initial government— the achingly growing pains, sighs of pubescent relief, and glorious cheers of victory and celebration. Oh and now, our teenage and college-aged crises of hubris and incredibly short-sighted ego.
My husband on the other hand? His family history is one of constant and egomaniacal oppression and exile… fight or flight from governmental and/or empirical persecution at every turn. And heartfelt bloodletting from both sides of his ancestral tree well into the modern days— yes, into his own perilous and painful life.
Many things in our past and present can pull us down into the muck and mire of this world before we realize it. One minute we are climbing into the sky and soaring with the eagles. The next? We are crashing in the ocean, our wings covered in grime.
What is it like to be grounded, unable to rise from the pit? You won’t need to guess for long. Trust me.
Wait. You’ll know soon everything you need to know about it from your life. No existence is perfect. All has ups and unfortunately, downs. If the person of graced by the Almighty.
Otherwise I’ll simply say two words— life sucks. In every possible way. Your fingernails come off from clawing your way to the surface. Your lips and cheeks tear and chap, your body aches, your back hurts, and legs and arms feel as if you’ve ran a triathlon. You’re short of breath as if you’ve sprinted a marathon and your brain fogs like you’ve been underwater too long.
My husband is an example of the hard life. I’m one of the easy. We’re both excerpts of agony in motion. Together, God created a whole in His Name.
Even today his life is reminiscent of either a Scotch-Irish or Lakota Sioux warrior surviving in the days of old… a literal fight for freedom and right to control his own path. To live his own life and control how and where he may live it as much as the ability to exist as a free and honorable man, not broken or enslaved to those around him. And not banished to a patch of infertile land to be dependent on the monstrosity determined to annihilate him or condemned to its system of self-destruction.
And we have no idea why our lives are what they are today. We simply plow ahead with the Lord’s strength and help as many family and friends as we can with what we can on the earthly plane. Praise and thank God we can do that!
That’s my and my husband’s lives EVERY DAY. We live together on the brink of elation and disaster and thank God for both. I hope you can do the same.
Thank you for joining us and keep coming back for more we would love to see you again!
Happy Thanksgiving 2024
In Christ,
James and Renee Blare
Renee Blare Christian Author 