Roots & Genes Inspiration

We grew up in a typical 70’s family home with a constant revolving front door. We still call it ‘Motel 7’. If it was not the neighbours, it was relatives or family friends, and each visit culminated in a summons to the living room whereupon the all too familiar question was asked; “Do you know who this is?” What followed was not just the names but where they’ve come from, and their connection to the family or how we were related. Frankly, in a society where, as young people you addressed every adult as Uncle or Aunty (related to you or not); in hindsight this was actually a good time when for a change, you got on-board with the facts rather than usual inuendo. And yet, even so, all this was lost on most of us.

I was probably the worst, with a mind like a sieve and no sooner than the visitors were gone, I’d forgotten. And this was probably not lost on our parents, Michael and Theresa. After many years of flogging a dead horse (me, and definitely one or two of my siblings), Dad started curating ‘Our Family Tree’.

Organically, it expanded and was fact checked, ironically through the same family visitors. Older members within the extended family who visited were introduced exactly as before; summons yelled, and the same old question asked; Do you know who this is? The relationships were explained and then the whole thing unfolded amongst the adults as they made further connections to the wider family. The family tree chart would come out, and corrections made and further connections added. The Tree grew and although heritage is immortalized through the birth of each new generation, ours, for the first time, was finally also being immortalized on paper. Un-beknown to us, Theresa and Michael were giving us their greatest gift yet.