The Secrets of My Family Tree

By Susan “Honey” Good

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Most of us remember when we hear something extraordinary.

I will never forget my uncle’s response when I asked him about our family tree. I was curious about my roots and very impressionable as I was in grade school. To this day, I remember his response.

“Maybe hundreds of years ago one of our ancestors married into a royal family from Sweden or Denmark or Holland,” he said.

My eyes opened wide with excitement. The thought of having royal blood in my family was a fairy tale story, but is it? Looking at my nuclear family today our genealogy never stops changing.

MY FAMILY TREE STORY

I did not let this uncle of mine off the hook quickly. I had a treasure chest of questions racing through my young mind.

“How did our family get there? Why did our family live there? What did our family do? I want you to tell me the whole story of my family,” I exclaimed.

He responded, “Remember, I said, ‘maybe.’ We have no written history. This is just a guess because our family is fair-haired with light eyes, and so are the people of these countries. I am sorry, but I don’t know…I wish I did.”

And then he winked and smiled, leaving me wondering all of these years.

I am not sure of the beginning of my family’s roots. One member of my immediate family has been working on our family tree through ancestry.com. At this time, the results are incomplete, but one thing I know for sure is that the dynamics in my family are ever-changing which makes me ponder. “What is not to say that one of my ancestors did not marry into a royal family,” I say to myself with excitement. Who knows?

MY FAMILY IN KANKAKEE BY THE SEA 

But this is what I do know: I grew up in an American Jewish family. All of my relatives, going back as far as I can trace, were Jews. Maybe one of my ancestors came from a royal bloodline or a nomadic tribe, or perhaps my ancestors fled Egypt with Moses or maybe a relative or several married Christians or Muslims. Who knows going back thousands and thousands of years. Oh, I wish I knew! Don’t you wish you knew your family tree going back centuries? Do you?

Today, my family is enormous. Growing up in Kankakee by the Sea, I had fourteen cousins on my father’s side. My mother grew up in Chicago where six of my cousins grew up. We are all married with families of our own, and our children have children and their children are having children. My family is gigantic and is scattered from Maine to Honolulu. I would love to organize a family reunion and I just might. Of course, I would include my ultimate concierge’s family. They are my family, too. I love them.

A BLENDED FAMILY

My ultimate concierge and my family tree now include, just over the past thirty years, a conglomeration of religious and international backgrounds. I am in awe most pleasantly. As that young grade school girl growing up in Kankakee by the Sea, I never imagined the life and love that awaited me. In my mind, it is still like a lovely fairy tale.

One of my grandsons has Samoan, Japanese, Korean, Israeli and Persian relatives. Another grand has a Korean wife. One of the children is married to an Israeli. And, one of the grand’s husbands has a Persian mother. Two of the grands married women of the Christian religion. Many are still single, and I wonder, “who will they bring into our family?”

In a world that sometimes focuses on our differences, I have learned, through this extended, blended family of mine, that we are more the same than we are different. The differences are fascinating, but the similarities tie us together.

I grew up identifying as an American Jew, but I have grown into a member of a more global community, just as surely as my own family tree has branched out. Is there royalty in our bloodline? Who knows; I am glad to have a spot in this ever-growing family and grateful for the diversity that makes our tree fascinatingly full of life + love.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Want to create your family tree? Try using one of these amazing (and free) family tree templates designed by Chris Taylor! 

Susan “Honey” Good is the founder of HoneyGood.com where this blog originally appeared. The site is a collection of lessons learned, life advice and insights from not only her, but from a fantastic group of contributing writers, each adding their own spice to the recipe. Honey Good discusses life experiences with wisdom, humor and intellect, enabling all to attain a “Honey Good Style of Life.”