Your Ancestral Heritage in a Landfill

Now into my third decade growing the Family Forest® connection service, I can’t begin to count how many times I’ve heard variations on the very same story. It goes like this.

My ________ (parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, etc.) had been researching and assembling our family history for decades. After she/he passed and the house was being prepared for estate liquidation, my ________ (sibling, aunt, uncle, cousin, etc.) threw it out with all of the other stuff they thought was just worthless accumulations.

I recently spoke with an elderly gentleman who knew this story, and he was trying to prevent it from happening to his descendants, both living and unborn. He already knew that his children and grandchildren had little or no interest in his/their family history, yet.

And Sam had great stories to pass along. At least two of his ancestors were well-documented to have performed valuable services in the founding of our country, and to have personally known George Washington.

So he joined the SAR. Joining a hereditary society is a great first step in passing along a part of your ancestral history to future generations of your descendants.

The reason that I say a part of your ancestral history is because each hereditary society has a particular interest area that they excel at. This valuable focus prevents them from including all of the parts of your ancestral heritage that are outside of their interest area, no matter how interesting those parts are to you and your descendants.

You can join multiple hereditary societies, and pass along multiple parts of your ancestral heritage, in separated parts.

But what if you want to pass along the bigger picture of your assembled and connected ancestral heritage?

You can use the Family Forest® connection service.

Six Miles to Shore

Family Forest Connection Service

I can’t stop thinking about a Family Forest® connection service I recently completed for a young lady from California. It was memorable to me for several reasons, including starting with so little, and accomplishing so much.

The most inspirational part for me is thinking about the spirit of one of Marsia’s ancestors, one of her 7^th-great-grandfathers, with the unusual surname of Brothwell. Joseph was a soldier from Yorkshire, England. I found a story about him on page 1,350 of A History of the Old Town of Stratford and the City of Bridgeport Connecticut, by Rev. Samuel Orcutt, published in 1886.

More than two centuries ago, Joseph jumped ship in the West Indies, and swam six miles to shore! Then he somehow came to New York, then moved on to Black Rock, in Fairfield, CT, and made his home there at what is now called Stratfield.

Forty-some years later, I still remember sailing due west into the Gulf of Mexico from Longboat Key, FL in a 15′ Venture Cat. It sat very close to waterlevel. At probably about a mile out, I looked back and the shoreline had almost disappeared. It was scary.

What would it have been like if I had continued sailing toward Texas for about five more miles, then jumped off, and tried swimming back to shore? And done it more than two centuries ago, when there were more and bigger creatures in the sea?

What did life look like through Joseph Brothwell’s eyes? What was he thinking while he was very vulnerable in the midst of the perils of the sea, with miles still left to swim?

How inspirational might it be to a college-bound young lady to discover that she carries the genes of this spirited and determined adventurer?

How many motivational stories about your own ancestors are squirreled-away in the nooks and crannies of recorded history, waiting to be discovered?

Maybe the beginning of a new year is the perfect time for you to consider giving us the opportunity to utilize the Family Forest® to lead your family to one or more of those stories.