Genealogy research is one of the most popular types of family history that people start researching. People often look for vital records to find out information about their ancestors and add them to their tree. Not all genealogists are also family historians, but there are a lot of reasons why knowing your family history is important.

Give A Sense Of Identity

Your family tree can show you how you are related to your ancestors and how they were similar to you. Your family history helps give you a window into who your ancestors really were. Old photos, letters, and journals bring your ancestors to life. Stories handed down through the family give the person that name and date on a page a real identity. Family history is what makes up who we are and grants us a sense of identity.

Helps You Engage Your Past

Have you ever spoken more than one language? Chances are that your other languages came from relatives. Your parents or grandparents (or even great-grandparents) gave them to you! If you were lucky, you learned how to make grandma’s pasta sauce, or schnitzel, or spring rolls too.

Builds Emotional Connections

There is something magical about sitting down and telling your child about how you met their other parent, and the good times you had when you were a kid. The stories may be simple, but to them they are their past— their memories. From these memories they'll build an emotional connection with their family, which in turn will allow them to know who they are. Who you are and where you come from is important if you want to have a sense of grounding.

Helps You Make Better Health Choices

It is not always easy to talk about the diseases or conditions that caused the death of our relatives and ancestors. But it is important to do so. I am from a family that has seen many deaths due to heart disease, and I am grateful for knowing about the risk factors for the disease. I chose to speak about it in the hopes that people who are genetically predisposed to heart diseases can take steps to lower them like I did.

Knowing about families with genetic heritable diseases in their genes can encourage younger generations to get tested for them as well. News of how deceased family members coped with a particular condition can provide hope to those who have that same condition.

Helps To Nurture Compassion

Knowing your ancestors immigrated may help develop feelings of compassion for others who are immigrants, and for people in the country where their ancestors came from. Kids who know which countries their ancestors came from may feel for people who live there today and are in dire situations. With the knowledge of where the family came from, you may find common ground with people who are not members of your family tree.

It is important to know that your ultimate genealogy is not from pond scum, but it is from a living God who created you for a purpose and has a plan for your life. Your genealogy matters because it can contribute to how you see yourself and how you see yourself can contribute to how you feel about yourself.  How you see yourself determines your self-image.  Your self-image is like an internal hard-drive that stores information and shapes the way you think. Your self-image can affect your personal outlook in life and your world view.

Imagine if you're genealogy connecting you to your Creator. How awesome is that?  According to the Bible, our ancestry takes us directly to God in person. And this works wonders for my self-image. How about you?