Why Should We Write Family Stories?

I've been thinking a lot lately about family stories and why we need to write them. It's a pet theme of mine, but next week, I am giving a program to a women's group about the same subject., so it's been on my mind more than usual.

The first question to consider is Why should we write family stories?

I found several quotes that give an answer to that question. Read them and then read them a second time. Let the words of these authors and others sink in. 

Alex Haley:  In every conceivable manner, the family is the link to our past and the bridge to our future. 

Unknown author:  Our most treasured heirlooms are the memories of our family.

Unknown author:  The measure of a woman's character is not what she gets from her ancestors but what she leaves her descendants.

Madeleine Engle:  If you don't recount your family history, it will be lost. Honor your own stories and tell them, too. The tales may not seem very important, but they are what binds families and makes each of us who we are.

Chinese proverb:  To forget one's ancestors is to be a brook without a source, a tree without a root.

Lawrence Overmire:  My charge, then, in putting down my pen and giving over this work to posterity is this:  Take the time. Take the time to preserve the stories, the photographs, the small mementos that mean so much. This is your legacy to future generations. Give it the attention it deserves. Your children and grandchildren will thank you for it. 

Me again:  I feel that knowing who and what came before us is helpful in knowing who we are today. I find it satisfying to know what my grandparents and great-grandparents were like as young people. And also my own parents, aunts, and uncles. Hearing their stories helps me understand what kind of person each one was and perhaps why they did something in particular. 

I had an aunt who told her daughter and me myriad stories about my dad and the things he did as a little boy. Maybe she embellished them a bit, but the facts were there. It let me know that my dad was a daredevil, loved his parents, was honest and more. 

As I learned more and more about my family members on both sides, I developed some admiration for some but also some questions as to why this person did whatever. I had pride after learning many things and perhaps a bit of shame on a few others. I developed great sympathy for what some of my family memebers had to deal with. Those stories also let me know I was but one threat in the great tapestry of my family history.

A good reason to tell the family stories is to help us know our family medical history. In my own family, we learned what side of the family had to deal with a certain medical issue. Had we not known when the situation occurred in the present day, we would have been lost. It's difficult sometimes as past generations were reluctant to reveal diseases, handicaps etc for fear of bringing shame on the family. Today, we know the importance of knowing a family's medical history, and we're willing to share to help others in the future. 

You owe it to yourself and to your present-day family, as well as future generations, to write those family stories you've heard told for so many years. Telling the stories at reunions or around the dining room table is wonderful, but they must be written to be preserved for all those who will come after you.