Because it makes history real.
When I was younger, I claimed (only slightly tongue-in-cheek) that I couldn’t get into history because, “you meet all these interesting people — but they’re all dead!”
Thankfully, that attitude has changed as I’ve aged, and I’m constantly finding history more and more interesting. One of the big triggers for that change was the first time I started digging through the box of genealogical records that floats around our family, during one of its trips through our household. At first it was just idle curiosity, but then I started reading…
Random recollections of what’s contained in that box:
One family line can be traced back to Richard Warren, who came to America on the Mayflower.
The line of mom’s maiden name — Ward — can only be traced back a few generations. The popular theory is that a few generations back, the “family founder” was an orphan, and therefore a “ward of the state.” Hence, the family name of Ward.
One of my ancestors ran a stop on the Underground Railroad during the civil war.
During the westward expansion of America, one family lived in a little cabin somewhere out on the woods. One day the mother and father were off somewhere, leaving the children in charge of the oldest child, who was around ten or twelve, I believe. During the time they were gone, he realized that there was a mountain lion (cougar?) stalking the house, and he had to find his father’s gun and kill the predator before it made off with one of the younger children.
During the Revolutionary War, one ancestor fighting for the colonies was captured by the British. During the review of the prisoners on board a British ship, the captain stopped in front of him — it was his brother. They retired to the captains cabin and spent the next few hours in debate, each trying to convince the other to switch sides. Neither succeeded, the captured brother was set free, and neither brother saw the other again.
These are all things that when you read about them in the history books, they often just provoke a “huh…that’s neat” reaction. But when I sat there and read through these stories as they related to myself and my family, they resonated with me in a way they never had before, and suddenly it was all a lot more real to me.
I’m really looking forward to being able to get back into all this again.
Can you tell? :)
iTunes: “Sky Is Broken, The” by Moby from the album Play (1999, 4:18).