Morgan Monks
March 20th 2014
Subject: Genealogy Chart

Dusting off the Past


     As I found and researched a little bit about my family it was really informational and it helped me understand a little bit about my ancestors especially because I have only met a few of them. Most of my great grandparents died before I was born or when I was a baby. The other ones lived so far away I rarely saw them before they past. Looking at the genealogy charts gave me a little bit more information into their lives.
     One of the interesting things I did pay particular attention to was the age at which my grandparents died at. There was the untimely death of my fathers mother Artha at 52 from breast cancer which I knew about, but also I learned several of my great grandparents died at a young age as well. My grandfather on my mother's side's parents died at 53 and 68. I was curious about these instances and my grandfather informed me that both of his parents had serious substance abuse such as smoking and alcohol and they died from the affects of that. I never knew that about my great grandparents and it really put into perspective maybe some of the reasons why my grandpa does some of the things he does. He has a hard time getting rid of things so I think that maybe that has a little bit to do with the loss of his parents at a young age along with his brother. Learning this information gave me a little bit of insight into the life of my grandfather.
     Another thing that was interesting to me was where my family is from and where that led them to stay for their lives. On my fathers maternal side most of his family is from Arizona and that is where a large portion of his extended family still lives. In fact my uncle recently moved there to be close to family. My fathers paternal side is from California however and that is where his family has stayed for a long time except when my father moved to Nevada when he was in high school. On my mother's side it rather similar on her maternal side. My mother, grandmother and great grandmother were born in Nevada in the Las Vegas area and my great grandparents stayed there their rest of their lives. The interesting thing is my mother's paternal side. They seen to come from a much different area, the east. I asked my mother what led them to the west because that is closer to where they died and she informed me that when the depression hit her great grandparents left the east to the mid west for more financial opportunity. Looking at where my family came from helped me know just a little bit more about them and gave insight into some of the trials they had to face.
      Another thing that is rather interesting that is shown on a genealogy chart is the passing down of names on my mothers side of the family. For starters I was given the name Morgan from my mother. Her maiden name is Morgan. She did this because she was named after her mother's maiden name Shelley. One thing I don't notice however was that my mothers middle name came from my great grandma Alice Reba Mhoon.Another interesting thing I had never noticed before is my fathers middle name came from his grandfather Arthur which is where my fathers mother'so name Artha came from.  Although I don't plan to name my first daughter my maiden name Monks, I do want to look at my ancestry and find a family name to incorporate into my future family.
    Overall being able to look at my family ancestry really made a difference in the way that I look at my family. I learned a lot about my families past but also thought of things I want to incorporate into my family's future.