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By
Diane Forrest
I was talking to my aunt the other day, and she was
getting ready to decorate her home for the fall season. Back in the old days, we only decorated for
Christmas. Now she decorates all year
long. She puts up aster trees and
decorations, then spring time, summer, July 4th, when school starts, Halloween,
Thanksgiving and then back to Christmas again. As she was talking about her
decorating she claimed that "my ancestors didn’t do all of this." to
which I replied - "Mine did!!" Once she started decorating her house, she
supplied her sister, my mother, with decorations for the different seasons for
her home. Once I moved out on my own, I
was also supplied with decorations. Now
that my son has his own home, I expect I will be supplying his wife with
decorations for the seasons. It seems
funny that a small little task likes decorating your home is something that
could be passed down from generation to generation.
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That reminds me about a story about cooking roast. This woman's recipe called for cutting off
both ends of a roast before cooking. She
never could understand why. She asked
her mother, who gave her the recipe why the ends were cut. She told her, well that’s the way we have
always done it. She then asked her
mother the reason for cutting the roast.
Her mother replied, well I had to, the pot wasn't big enough.
We learn so much from our ancestors, and also about our
history. In fact, genealogy studies are
the second most popular hobby, behind gardening. A friend of mine's father and grandparents
came from Italy. He has seen pictures of
the ships that transported them, and also other papers from when they
immigrated to this country. He found most
of his information on Ancestry.com. His
father met his mother in America. She
was born in America, but also of Italian descent. Their marriage combined the history of
Italy, as well as the customs of America.
He fondly remembers watching his mother cook the Old Italian recipes and
special holiday treats, and even occasionally prepares these dishes for his
family. These have been passed down to
his children and they will one day pass them down to their children.
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Learning about our ancestors not only includes
decorations and recipes, but you can also learn about health issues as
well. Many of the diseases people have
are genetically coded in our DNA. This
includes the color of your hair and eyes, to heart disease or diabetes, or
birth defects.
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Today is Ancestor Appreciation Day. I found a picture of my son dressed up as a Wild
West gangster. I would imagine if he had
lived in that era, that is what he would have looked like. If he keeps that picture until he has
grandchildren, I’m sure they would think he was a criminal in his younger
days! I also found a picture of my
husband's grandfather, made a few changes such as coloring his hair and adding glasses
and the result was nearly the spitting image of his grandfather, as shown in
the picture above. So, today, pull out
your photo albums, and see if you can recognize traits in yourself that are noticeable
in your family tree.
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