Thankful Thursday - Family History

I've been working on a little project this summer.  Well, make that a big project.  It started out as something that seemed fairly simple and easy and has become something not so simple and not so easy.  Don't get me wrong, I am REALLY enjoying this project and the change from being a small simple project to a big not-so-simple one is pretty much completely my fault.  I am no good at estimating, especially when it involves numbers, like amount of time, number of people.  Anything with numbers...

So what IS this project I'm working on you might ask.  I'm going to publish a book or two, or three, or more... family history story books.  Most of you who know me personally, or have been around me lately already know about this project, and you know how excited I am!  This has been one of my favorite projects I've ever taken on.

There are so many great stories about my relatives that I've heard over the years that I only know pieces of. I'm sure you all do, too.  I wanted to make a book that had those great stories in them that would be appealing to a wider demographic than dusty, fact filled, sometimes boring personal histories can be.  And in the beginning, that's all I really thought of, just the stories that I had heard and then add on 5 stories that my mom, my aunt, my uncle, and my grandparents knew too.

I literally had no idea that my relatives--living and deceased--did so much interesting stuff, and that my family would get so into this project!  I thought at most, the book would have 30-50 stories, or about 5 stories each  This project has exceeded my expectations.  The Chronicles of My Family now has 114 stories, with many more to come!  I told you I can't estimate!

Add to that, I decided to add two more family history projects to the mix, one for my dad's side of the family and one for my husband's family.  I think I might be going crazy!  But in a nice, doing something I love, way.

So anyways, here comes the part that I'm thankful for.  The reason this post is titled "Thankful Thursday - Family History."  It's about time, you might say!  I am so thankful for family history work!  It's sort of a two-fold thankfulness.

First, I am thankful for all the hard work that my family has done on my family history!  I've never really gotten into doing the research portion of it.  I took a couple of classes back in BYU, and all the work involved for those classes kind of killed whatever interest I had in it back then.

But all that work does mean that I understand and appreciate the amount of work that my relatives have done on our family tree.  The ones that have probably done the most work are my maternal grandparents.  Without all the work they've done, I probably wouldn't have even been inspired to make the books.  They are the researchers, I am just the organizer.  Which sometimes, when you look at the big picture, is just a waste of time!  But it's so much fun!

Second, I am thankful for family history work because it gives me a connection to my ancestors that I never really expected.  We all know the famous family history scripture, Malachi 4:6.  It states, "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers..."  I never really applied this scripture to myself.

Like I said, Family History work never really appealed to me.  But since I've been working on this project, I've really felt that connection.  My heart has truly been turned to my fathers.  They aren't just my "old, dead ancestors" any more.  They are real and I really admire them.