To Build, or not to Build? That is My Ahnentafel Question!

"They" say that "doing genealogy" is an addictive endeavor.

"They" say that it's a waste of time, the past is past and you cannot change it. Even "He" said, "Let the dead bury their dead."

The problem of that is that "He" also talked about eternal life! How that it was available and how that "He" was come to that we might have "... life, and have it more abundantly."

I'm not dead. Neither are my ancestors, "in Him."

I come from a rather large family. 8 siblings. We all look somewhat alike, but there are no identical twins, and very few of us might be mistaken for another. We're all very good citizens, useful contributors to our communities, and not bad people to have as one's friends. And yet, we're all very much individuals, and each of us stubbornly adhere to our own personal identity.

It's really not a bad thing!

Circumstances and personal experience obviously played a significant role in developing our individuality. And yet, most of those happenings were shared happenings between the 9 of us. Why are we so similar, and yet so very different from each other?

Over the years as I've worked on my ahnentafel, I've been amazed at how many of my siblings I've met along the way. In some cases, the "sins of the father" have been carried down far more than just the 4 generations that scripture forecasts. We are our "fathers'" and our "mothers'" children.

How those personality characteristics are carried down genetically is something that science has not been able to answer yet. Some would claim that it's an impossible concept to demonstrate or "prove."

Maybe so.

Maybe not.

The question for me, the genealogy researcher is: "do I REALLY want to meet that person from my past in my study?"

Metaphorically, I still see the needle tracks and continue to inflict even more.

It's definitely a hard habit to break!