Why Families Should Preserve Their History
Do you have any famous relatives? It might be a cool hobby to trace your family’s history and learn about who among your relatives near and far may have achieved considerable success in their industry. Think about it. Several dozen people can trace their ancestry back to the Arthur Wellesly, the Duke of Wellington who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. Ar least a couple dozen people today claim membership in the House of Hohenzollern, the family of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Prussia and Germany. You never know who your famous relatives may be.
Some families do cherish their history enough to preserve it on the Web. And they may recognize the achievements of their more prominent members. Take the Bredimus family in America. They show profiles for Nicholas Bredimus and Kate Bredimus, who both appeared in news media reports in their careers (among other members of the family). Not every family has to have a famous business person in the ranks. Some families run small businesses that are featured in local news feature stories.
But for families like the Bredimus family it is no doubt a point of pride that many media stories quote their relative Nicholas Bredimus on a variety of issues. And they may have collected many of Kate Bredimus’ own articles about famous people from her journalistic work.
A good family Website does not have to be complicated, although naturally if you include historical information about your family other distant relatives may actually find their way to your site. Although it does not mention Nicholas Bredimus one family blog attempts to reach out to other Bredimus relatives on several levels. The effort may have lapsed quickly but at least Bredimus family members learned they had relatives in various parts of the world.
The mutual interest that family members have in each others’ careers and achievements help sustain family traditions and pass on historical anecdotes. When children become old enough to ask where they came from and who they are related to, many families delight in sharing stories about “old uncle Fred” and “great-grandpa Charlie”. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to say, “And we’re also descended from the first settlers to live in our state”?
