Tag: history

The Importance of Uncovering Family History

We know that each person’s life is a book which has meaning and relevance to the story of mankind, even if we feel insignificant. When someone dies that story ends and the book is closed. The same can be said of our families. Every family carries a story — a tapestry woven from the lives, choices, triumphs, and hardships of those who came before us. Yet in the busyness of everyday life, it’s easy to move forward without looking back. Taking the time to explore your family’s history is more than a nostalgic hobby. It’s a meaningful act of grounding, understanding, and connection.

1. It Helps You Understand Who You Are
Your identity is shaped not just by your own experiences, but by the generations before you. Learning about the paths your ancestors walked — whether they crossed oceans, built new communities, or persevered through personal challenges — can give you a deeper sense of place in the world. Family narratives, like those preserved in historical memoirs and genealogical research collections such as Family History & Stories, remind us that we’re part of a much bigger story. [Family His…& Stories | PDF]

2. It Preserves Stories Before They Fade
Every family has stories that risk being lost with time — memories held by grandparents, handwritten letters tucked away in drawers, or names on old family‑tree charts like those found in historyfiles. Documenting these stories ensures they remain accessible for future generations. Without our effort to safeguard them, rich histories may disappear. [onedrive.live.com]

3. It Strengthens Family Bonds
Researching family history often becomes a shared journey. Interviews, photos, and documents open the door to conversations with relatives you may not know well. Even old family anecdotes — like the multigenerational stories captured in files such as history reference — help bridge gaps between ages and bring families closer together. [history reference | HTML]

4. It Provides Perspective and Resilience
Learning about hardships or resilience in your family line can offer strength during your own challenges. When you discover what earlier generations endured or accomplished, your own struggles can feel more manageable. Their perseverance becomes a quiet encouragement: you come from strength.

5. It Preserves Cultural and Regional Roots
Family histories often hold clues about cultural heritage, migration, and traditions. Whether your roots trace through states like Georgia or North Carolina — as seen in historical accounts preserved in materials such as history reference — understanding where your lineage comes from can deepen your appreciation for the customs and values passed down to you. [history reference | HTML]

6. It Creates a Legacy for the Future
By learning and recording your family’s past, you’re creating a gift for future generations. One day, someone in your family may rely on the notes, photos, and stories you preserved — just as you may rely on the work of earlier relatives who safeguarded records like those represented in Family History & Stories. [Family His…& Stories | PDF]

I write stories like Finding Faith and Send Me A Song because of my belief in discovering one’s family history and of the importance of sharing our family stories. These help us to feel more grounded and to help us understand where it is we come from and why we are the way we are. I believe that our hearts and souls long to know that history. This why adoptees like myself don’t feel whole until we can discover our birth families. I believe we have a right we have to know and understand where we came from. So often, not knowing can be damaging and can lead people to strike out under the frustration of not understanding who we truly are.

Studies have shown that adoptees and foster children are twice as likely as suffer from depression, anxiety, and other mental heal health issues as blood related children are. Key findings regarding mental health in adopted and foster children include:

Contextual Factors: Risk varies based on adoption type, with children placed in foster care or adopted later in life facing higher risks than those adopted at birth. (National Institutes of Health (NIH) )

Higher Prevalence: Adopted children are nearly twice as likely to suffer from mood disorders like anxiety and depression.

Foster Care Risk: Former foster children are significantly more likely (over 2x) to develop clinical depression, and are also prone to PTSD, attachment issues, and behavioral problems.

Common Issues: Common diagnoses include Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), and PTSD, often stemming from early life trauma.

Core Issues: Many adoptees struggle with issues related to loss, rejection, identity, and grief, which can increase the likelihood of internalizing or externalizing emotional stress.

Knowing your family’s history is more than collecting dates and names. It’s about honoring the lives that shaped yours, preserving wisdom that might otherwise be lost, and fostering deeper ties between generations. Your story didn’t begin with you — and exploring the roots of your family tree can be one of the most meaningful journeys you take.

Remember, too, that it cannot stop with YOU! You must take your family’s history forward for those who will come after you. Start a journal or scrapbook or make a video and fill it full of all the important information about your family so that your grandchildren, great-grandchildren and on will know who you were, what was important to you, and the about world you live in and keep it safe. Make sure that your children understand and respect the importance of keeping this information and adding to it as they grow up and become parents themselves. They will be glad that you instilled this in them when they are themselves parents and grandparents.

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Celebrating Patrick Henry: 250 Years of Liberty and Responsibility

March 23, 2025 will be the 250th anniversary of Patrick Henry's famous speech given at St. John's Church in Richmond wherein he declared, "Give me liberty or Give me death"!  This speech was just weeks before the first cannons of war would be shot at Lexington and Concord beginning the Revolutionary War. To celebrate this key moment in U.S. history, there will be a reenactment at St. John's Church. A descendant of Henry's, Henry Jolly, will portray the Founding Father. Jolly has been portraying his ancestor since the 1990s. He believes that most students only know Patrick Henry for the speech and little else. He's made it his mission to educate students about Henry's other contributions to the nation's history. Moreover, Ken Burns, known for his documentaries of historical periods and biographies, added that many Americans don't know much about the speech other than those few words.
"According to Jolly, the delivery of those fiery words 'Give me liberty or give me death' was 'part of a longer defense of resolutions he had submitted, which put Virginia officially into a posture of defense against Great Britain.' During his speech, which as Jolly presents it today is 14 minutes long, 'He had to convince the leaders of the day that Virginia could defend itself against the British army, which was one of the most powerful military forces in the world. His words helped convince his peers they could be successful against, ‘so formidable an adversary.’”   (https://cardinalnews.org/2025/03/18/patrick-henrys-words-have-echoed-through-the-centuries-and-around-the-world/)
Henry's words were a plea for the Virginia government to prepare for war. He was, most likely an anti-federalist, but he was not anti-government. This is in opposition to how we often hear his words used today. So often we hear these words used as a protest against government intervention into our personal lives, which is not how Henry used them. John A. Ragosta, an early American historian and author of Patrick Henry: Proclaiming A Revolution, “He meant exactly the opposite,” Ragosta said. “His speech was about the people coming together. It was not about me, it was about us.” (www.cardinalnews.com above) Henry's words were even shouted at the the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, as well as being painted on banners.
What people don't understand about Henry as well as other Founding Fathers is that he was a communitarian, meaning he believed in the community of people and preserving the rights of the people, not individuals. Today with the spread of technology, people have become more and more singularly focused. We are far more focused on our rights, our identities, our circumstances, and less interested in the community, the state, or the interests of the nation as a whole. We have become more interested in what others can do for us than what our role is in our communities.
Jon Kukla, author of the biography Patrick Henry: Champion of Liberty and an historian who has been researching Patrick Henry for half a century, added that Henry's words were about a person's responsibilities to the community, not just their rights...“'the first thing a person had to do in order to enjoy freedoms was to practice self-discipline.' That meant to be less selfish and less focused on one’s own desires in the moment, and more in tune with the qualities of good citizenship:  charity, forbearance, frugality, justice, love, moderation, temperance and virtue."(https://cardinalnews.org/2025/03/18/patrick-henrys-words-have-echoed-through-the-centuries-and-around-the-world/)
In my mind this has never been more important as we move deeper into the 21st century. The United States throughout the 20th century sacrificed ourselves so often for the betterment of other nations to our own detriment. We have increasing numbers of homeless, hungry, increasing illiteracy, decreasing quality of education and healthcare to mention a few. Putting ourselves first before others more often than not gets push back. The "Make America Great Again" movement meets with anger and resentment. Is that only because it is lead by Donald Trump, or is it a legitimate concern to those who push back? Why shouldn't Americans come first? Why shouldn't be house ourselves first? Feed ourselves first? Educate ourselves the best? My question is...do you not believe that in France they want to be the best? Of course they do. Do they not want to put France first? Of course they do. In Germany, do they not want to put Germans first? Of course they do. Don't they want to house Germans in Germany first? Of course they do. Do they want Germans to speak German? Of course they do. Then, why on earth do we force shame on ourselves for wanting to put America first? To believe that nationalism is immoral is ludicrous. Nationalism that rises to the level of genocide is immoral. That is not what we are talking about.
We can learn from Patrick Henry's words 250 years after he spoke them. He was not calling for no government. He was calling for people to get involved, to step up to the plate. We can no longer afford to be apathetic. With freedom comes responsibility. Our responsibility is to be knowledgeable of the issues and to vote. Not doing these things...well, you might as well be dead.

Thank you Patrick Henry!

Exploring Thin Places: St. Patrick’s Spiritual Journey

I have always been a huge fan of St. Patrick’s Day mostly because of my Irish roots, but until a few years ago, I knew almost nothing about St. Patrick. I am not Catholic so I had no reason to know anything about him. Of course, I knew the legend about his running snakes out of Ireland, but that was essentially it. Then, my loving mother-out-law (don’t you love that!) went to Ireland and Scotland on a trip to visit the Thin Places and brought back a wealth of information to me about, not only the Thin Places, but also St. Patrick. I was amazed by Patrick’s story, and to be quite frank, I felt shorted by not having known all the information about him before. For myself looking back over my life, I would have found encouragement in his story. In those times when I thought things to be insurmountable, St. Patrick’s story would be one to turn to as a reminder that things never stay bad forever.

So, who was St. Patrick? Patrick, born about 385 A.D. and died March 17, 461 A.D., came from a good family and lived in Roman Britain. His father, Calpurnius, was a deacon in the church. Patrick was not interested in God or the church as a young man. At the age of 16, he was doing what many boys of his age were doing; he was hanging out along the water when an Irish raiding party came along and kidnapped him. They took him to Ireland where he was held captive as a slave. While in Ireland, he was a sheepherder. While tending to the sheep, he began to pray and to seek out God. He chose not to be bitter about his predicament. It was at this time, after six years of captivity, that Patrick said God spoke to him. He ran away, running over 200 miles. He took a boat back to Britain and was captured, spending time in captivity once again. Once released he was reunited with his family and spent a few years with them.

Then one night he had a vision of the people of Ireland calling to him saying, “We beg you, holy boy, to come and walk again among us.”(https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2025/02/19/who-was-st-patrick-heres-what-to-know-about-the-man-behind-the-holiday-march-17/79194446007/). He knew that he had to go back, but he did not return for 20 years. Between the time of his vision and the time he returned to Ireland, he received training and education in the Christian faith. When Patrick arrived in Ireland, the various pagan religions saw him as a threat to their way of life.

Many scholars believe that the reason the Irish turned to the Christian faith was because Patrick possessed the ability to heal, to raise the dead, as well as other signs and wonders. Without these abilities, it may not have happened in such a large fashion as it did. Historians allege that he consecrated 1000 priests, 200-300 bishops, and converted 40 out of the 150 tribes to Christianity. He is often described as being a humble person, but also generous. He is noted for bringing gifts to chieftains, but also for refusing gifts for himself. Britannica indicates that “he was a humble-minded man, pouring forth a continuous paean of thanks to his Maker for having chosen him as the instrument whereby multitudes who had worshipped ‘idols and unclean things’ had become ‘the people of God.’”(https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Patrick)

There are, of course, legends about St. Patrick. The snakes are just one, but it is probably the most glaringly untrue. It’s unlikely that there were ever snakes in Ireland for Patrick to run out because of the previous ice age which made Ireland too cold. The most popular is the shamrock which St. Patrick used to explain the trinity–three leaves with one stalk=three person in one God. The shamrock is the national flower of Ireland.

Now, you might ask, what is that reference you made to the Thin Places? That’s a great question. I had never heard of the Thin Places until my mother-out-law went on her trip to Scotland and Ireland. I became interested after hearing about it from her, so I went to the YouTube video she told me about. I am going to link two videos on the subject here for you. The first one by Rebecca Friedlander has a full length movie associated with it that is available for a fee. Basically, the Thin Places are places where you can get very close to the heavens or other realms as Ms. Friedlander calls them…so close that it gets thin. Like being on the top of a mountain. Like Mt. Ararat, I would believe because that is where Noah’s Ark came to rest and it is sacred. It is in these thin places where we can go and we can pray and fast to be closer to God. Here is the link to the video. https://youtu.be/j2AftRs-QRc?si=4bvMXH9Egd_Nr0VH And here is another one called “Braving the Thin Places” by a different person. https://youtu.be/-n_IooHy6S0?si=txGcFjPSyMM8OmtM. Both of these ladies speak of the Thin Places in terms of Ireland and Scotland, though I believe that there are Thin Places around the world and not simply limited to Ireland and Scotland. You will notice that when Ms. Friedlander describes the Thin Places, she uses the word “fairies”. This is odd to me for someone who professes to be Christian and who is attempting to put this idea within a Christian context; the two don’t really go together. When I think of what they are talking about, I think of Thin Places as those places where we feel closest to God. I am a mountain girl. I love to stand a top a mountain and gaze out at the vastness of God’s creation. I feel close to Him there and I usually feel a strong urge to talk with God in those moments. Someone else might get that same feeling out on the sea. When I listen to what Rebecca describes, I get the feeling that Thin Places can be a physical place or they can be an emotional place. I also thought about how quantum physicists speak of multiple realities and portals to those realities when I listen to her describe these Thin Places. I would love to hear what you think about these descriptions of Thin Places.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the information about St. Patrick. He is so much more than a singular day of debauchery and deserves our respect and honor for what he brought to our faith. Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

God Bless You All!

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