Your Family History

​How much do you know of your family tree or genealogy whether from your paternal or maternal side? Many are interested in this subject, prompting the inception of certain websites like Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org or, at the minimum, interviewing older family members. Every household therein contains a unique family history, and it explains why many decide to write their personal memoir, meaning memories.

In this week's episode, the curator of the Saint Charles County Mo. Museum spoke of Boone’s historical home and his trail blazing accomplishments as a frontiersman, and to this day, there are descendants with the same last name, Boone.

Statistics have shown that ⅓ adults used the Internet to research more about their family genealogy.

67% indicated that learning of their family tree has made them feel sagacious or wiser as an individual.

72% also indicated it helped them to draw closer to older family members.

And 52% serendipitously discovered unknown ancestors they never knew they had.

Now, there is a difference between knowing and reducing what you know to writing, and I think authoring your story is of most benefit in terms of feeling emotionally stable and anchored down.

Psychological research has shown that writing about our subjective experiences will ameliorate mood disorders, help mitigate symptoms with those suffering from cancer, improve an individual's health after a heart attack, improve memory capacity, and you will find yourself going to the doctor much less.

You can liken it to an iceberg, where only 10 percent is above the water level, your conscious, and 90 percent is below the water, your subconscious. So, it is a matter of drawing up your emotionally hidden concerns.

It boils down to the process of sitting down and writing your subjective experiences, personal concerns or even your grievances, and if you proceed to flush it, this actionable step will bring you a sense of closure enabling you to move forward, it is cathartic. And this is the motivating factor for many to write their family story.

I am not here to advocate for you to write your family genealogy or to discourage you from doing so, I have my own personal thoughts about this of which I will share at the end of this blog.

About a year ago, we featured an episode by a genealogist from the state of Utah, who gave us many avenues of researching our ancestors of which she shared her personal journey, and it may be a jumping point for you if you want to go down that rabbit hole.

Speaking of history, allow me to interject, have you ever wondered what constitutes a historical landmark? Did you know it takes for the property to be at least 50 years old and for a significant event or personal contribution to have taken place there?

Here in California, it is referred to as the Mills Act Program, enacted in 1972.

This is an Economic incentive to encourage revitalization of a historical home and the restoration and preservation of downtown commercial property. How do I know this?

I have a sister that owns a commercial building downtown that qualifies as a historical landmark and the local municipality provides incentives for the owner to maintain the structure in its original architectural design by minimizing property taxes, allowing tax funds to be utilized for the owner to maintain the building in its original condition.

No question, the Mills Act also benefits local government, allowing governments to institute preservation programs to accommodate merchants and the rest of the community by encouraging and promoting heritage tourism which fosters pride of ownership, it creates cultural tourism, it builds civic pride, an economic boost for the entire community.

History is an interesting thing to me, it tells us where we have been, and it also tells us where we are going as a society. However, what I find so disconcerting is that what we have learned from history, is that we have not learned from history. But that is another discussion for another time.

Genealogically speaking, however, my paternal side of the family are from Northern Italy, specifically in the region of Genoa and Verona.

The story goes that my granddad immigrated to Mexico around the turn of the 20th century and did his best to assimilate into the culture even to the extent of changing his last name to Diaz, to ingratiate himself with the existing government, the president being Porfirio Diaz at the time. Unless he was safer to change it because he was a horse thief! Who knows?

However, his given last name was Muccio before he changed it to Diaz, therefore, here I am, first generation in this country. I can say that on my birth certificate my first name is Italian of which it has been modified over the years to Benny, Benjamin and just Ben, and of course, they call me other names of which I will not expand on now.

It appears that the family propensity to grow wine grapes originated from Northern Italy by way of what I just described, for that was my dad's way of life while I was growing up, and unbelievably, I even stomped on wine grapes in the old traditional way, my bear feet.

Of course, I do not do that anymore, I just enjoy savoring a good bottle of wine, particularly Merlot, please put that in your memory file.

What I have revealed to you about my family tree has only been passed down by relatives, not by genealogical research whatsoever. Here are my concluding thoughts on the topic, that if we go back far enough in history, and if you believe in a creator, we are all inextricably related as a human family. "Let's not make life difficult for ourselves!"