The Lee MacLellan Family Story
Website vs. Book
Writing a book was one of the major items on my "bucket list". I knew I couldn't write fiction; I wasn't clever or imaginative enough. So it had to be non-fiction. I didn't know what it would be about, but I knew I wanted to write one.
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When I expressed an interest in family history I became the recipient of everyone's old boxes of family photos and documents. And as it grew on me, I realized my "book" was going to be my family history. And rather than making it a book no one would read, I decided to do the modern thing, and create a web site instead that would be backed by years of genealogical research.
Most family genealogies are as dry as dust, with a list of who was the son of whom, who were their children, and everyone's birth dates.
I didn't want to write a dry genealogy; I wanted to make my family story come alive. That way we could get an idea of who came before us, how they lived, and the choices they made. I was fortunate enough to have more than names and dates; I had letters, pictures, remembrances, and personal memories. I knew Lee and Irma; I knew their daughters; my mother, and my aunts and their husbands.
But the question remains: why should we be interested in the dry bins of history? What's past is gone, right? All that matters is the all-mighty now, right?
So why does it matter? It matters:
But what makes us, well us? It is easy to realize that we get genetic material from our parents. The mother and father’s DNA combines to create us, each a unique biological human.
But we are more than our DNA. According to experts in the field who we are comes from about 50% DNA, and 50% our environment.
It’s the old nature vs. nurture argument. Turns out both win.
The American author John Updike, a shrewd chronicler of American life, put it this way: "The past is all we have. The now is a thin red line, and the future doesn't exist"
Because they are us ....