| How long do surnames live in memory? With
people, women's average life expectancy is longer
than men's. With surnames, just the opposite is
true.
Paternal surnames are often remembered for
many generations, but maternal surnames are often
forgotten after only two generations. It seems
that most people, except those who have been
bitten by the genealogy bug, do not know or
remember the surnames of either of their
grandmothers.
Why is this? Why do non-genealogists believe
that genealogy is only about one's own surname?
Why does mainstream media continue to encourage
this belief? Aren't mothers' genes important?
Just as important? Why aren't mothers railing
against this unfair bias by the mainstream media?
The line of one's father's father's father's
father's etc. is but one thin thread from the
large and undoubtedly very colorful tapestry of
one's ancestry. The law of averages says that
most of the excitement is elsewhere; on one (or
most probably both) of the paths that begin with
either one's mother or one's father's mother.
To know all of one's ancestry for twenty
generations (only about six centuries) means that
one can fill in more than one million boxes on
one's ancestor chart. The line of one's father's
father's father's father's etc. represents only
twenty (20) of those one million plus boxes.
I wonder when the mainstream media will begin
exploring and reporting on all of the exciting
and enriching possibilities on mothers' ancestral
pathways?
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