My Mother's Side Of The Family example essay topic

Family history is very important to an individual. By knowing where you come from, you can have a better perspective of your life. Having a clear understanding of your family background allows you to better appreciate the things that you would normally take for granted. The house, the car, and the average clothing may look better when one sees the sacrifices their family has made.

They will see that their family has worked very hard just so their family can experience the better things in life. A persons roots and origin is one of the most important things to explore. It alone can bring you closer to self-discovery. There are two sides to a person's family and one side of my family has been traced all the way back to slavery. My father's side of the family originally came from a Georgia plantation. Although my father is Afro-American, his great-great-grandfather was a general who owned slaves.

From Georgia my father moved to New Jersey. After settling in New Jersey, my father enlisted in the military and began his life as a military man. My mother's side of the family is all from Puerto Rico. My grandparents moved my mother and her sister to America when they were very young.

They moved to Macedonia, Illinois. When my mother got older she too enlisted in the military as a nurse. My mother met my father while they were both serving in the military in Germany. After they both finished their time in the military, my mother moved to New Jersey with my father and they started their life together. My family has many different traditions that we hold dear to ourselves. One of these is that on Thanksgiving everybody comes together to my parents' house in New Jersey for a huge feast.

On Christmas only my mother and the children (me and my brother) travel to Illinois to spend a week with my grandparents. On New Years Eve we all get together at my parents' house in New Jersey and toast to the New Year with champagne and apple cider. During Labor Day weekend all of my family travels to South Jersey to my grandfathers' condo. We usually spend all of our time on the beach and barbecuing, except on Sunday when we go to church. After all, my grandfather is a minister.

One of our biggest family traditions is going back to Puerto Rico. Every year my mother and I travel back to Puerto Rico for a portion of our summer vacation. Now that I am older I travel there more often and stay there much longer. My father never joins because he doesn't like my mothers side of the father too much and he thinks that we when we speak Spanish we are all plotting against him. Of course that's not true though. My bother doesn't speak Spanish so he doesn't like to go either.

I guess that tradition is one that belongs solely to my mother and I. The role of the people in family basically stayed the same for most of the generations with a little change in the later generations. Earlier the males were the only ones that worked in the family and the wife stayed at home and took care of the house and the children. It was not until my grandparents' generation, that the women started to work and the family started having a dual income. Even in Puerto Rico my abu ela (grandmother) stayed at home to take care of the children while my abu elo (grandfather) worked. It all worked out though because together they now own two bodegas (local stores) and a Laundromat.

With respect to religion, the members of my family are either Baptist or Catholic, each of different denominations. With my grandfather being a Baptist Minister, it is ironic that I practice in the Catholic faith. I was never baptized, thus I do not practice in that faith. While we do believe in God and our religion, we do not attend church regularly. We do read our bible though and always attempt to practice what the bible preaches. People should know the history of their family because it is important for a person to know where they originate.

It is also just important to know the traditions of the family so that they can continue them with their kids to keep the tradition going. Traditions are the ties that keep families together. Preserved correctly they are the links that connect the past to the present and on to the future.