| What do people mean when they say "My
line goes back to _________"? Oftentimes
this statement is accompanied by something
similar to "I've traced all of my
line". Many people seem to mean the line
of their father's father's father's father's
etc., and think that is the only ancestral line
they have (or at least the only one that
matters). In charting terms, this is one of only
two straight ancestral lines they have. The other
straight ancestral line they have is the line of
their mother's mother's mother's mother's etc.
In between those only two straight lines on an
ancestor chart are a countless number of other
lines that zig zag back to wherever humans
actually came from.
Which line is most important? Is it one's
father's father's father's father's line, as many
people believe? What if just one connection on
one of those countless number of your other zig
zag lines never happened? Would you be here
today?
Certainly you would not be here as the person
you are. Each and every ancestral couple you have
was absolutely essential to you being you, and
would therefore have been of equal importance. No
substitutions could have occurred, or you would
not have been you.
If there had been a single substitution
somewhere in the past, would you have been born
as someone else, or would you have never existed?
|
