When my mom and I were looking through some of the family photos last weekend there
were a number of times when we could easily see some other family members in
the faces of the ancestors who have long since left us. And it was interesting
as to when it would hit us as there was really no guarantee whether the person’s
name or the current counterpart would be thought of first. At the same time,
there wasn’t any certainty as to which one of us would make the connection
either.
In
some instances my mom would tell me who someone was in the photo and then
follow up with something along the lines of “I didn’t realize how much your
cousin looks like her.” There were other times when I would see either an aunt,
uncle, or cousin in one of the people and as soon as my mom told me who they
were it made complete sense. And, of course, there were various combinations of
this throughout our time with the album on the table in front of us.
While
it is certainly clear to those who know my family, I get much of my looks from
my father’s side of the family. However, in looking through the photos with my
mom I could see a little piece of myself in some of the pictures. I noticed a
couple of little things like my hair line and posture but what really stood out
to me, which I knew of before, was the handwriting that was on the backs of
many of the photos. While my looks may be predominantly from my dad’s side, my
handwriting is, without question, from my mom’s side.
Sometimes
these ties are really what make looking through old photos in particular so
interesting. On the surface you are putting faces to names but on a completely different
level you are finding yourself and many of your other family members in little
pieces of the past. It just goes to show that your family, your whole tree,
plays a big role in who you are regardless of what you might think. This, of
course, is in addition to the obvious genetic traits that we carry. Sometimes
it is in the simple things like looks but sometimes it can be in other ways
like handwriting, the way you hold yourself, and your demeanor.
For
better or worse, I kind of have a mix of all those things. There are little
pieces from both sides that I carry with me every day. And I am certain that
there are many other similarities that I have yet to discover with some of my
ancestors. So you can look at genealogy as pulling together the family history
or you can look at it as finding pieces of yourself. For me, it is definitely a
little of both.
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