2. Family History vs. Genealogy

Family History and genealogy. What's the difference? Genealogy is just the simple tree that everyone knows. Its the ancestors that are all connected by the same spot. That spot is you. But family history is much deeper than that. It's the stories behind each name on that branch. Family history is the literal history of your ancestors. In terms of a chemical engineers standpoint, family history is as a P&ID of a chemical process whereas genealogy is just a block diagram or maybe even a PFD, the tree is well detailed. My guess is that most people reading this have no idea what that even means. Generally speaking, family history is very detailed and is much more beneficial than genealogy, but it requires much more work to complete.

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Once again, in my Writing 150 class, we were asked to read a story and some research about children who knew more about their family history than other children who knew very little about theirs. As interesting as it was, it was interesting to see that those kids who knew more tending to deal with stress much better than those who knew less. They had higher self-esteems and they were in general more successful at life. Although correlation is not causation, there is definitely some correlation here.

I know much about my family history and I have seen it benefit my life from it. It has made me more social with other people because I have been able to share stories about my ancestors, such as one who was a pioneer. Jane Johnson Black was a midwife and received a blessing from the President and prophet if the church at the time, Brigham Young. She was blessed that she would never loose a baby or a mother while helping to deliver babies. This blessing was seen to come true as she delivered over 1000 babies without loosing a single life. Especially in this time, this was a true miracle. I mean, how many times do you see over 1000 babies be born and not a single one loosing their life. The average rate for a stillborn child is 1 in every 200 babies. That's today's time too, not to mention the rate around 100 years ago.

I love my family history. It is so fun to get engaged in stories about ancestors, people who share the very same blood as yourself. It's crazy to think that I am related to someone blessed by the prophet to bless so many others. I hope that I can add up enough to be worthy of my name, worthy of my lineage. The research that we were able to read and learn about is evidence of the Spirit of Elijah taking role in our day and age. The research shows it, and my life shows it. It's my family, so it's my story.