
My younger brother called me a few months back and asked if I can get in touch with some of our aunts and uncles to get information about our ancestry. His children, more than him were interested in making a family tree.
It seemed an uphill task as both of our parents and all four grandparents have passed away. How to get the relevant information and from whom was the tricky question because there are no long-term birth or death records maintained in our country, at least a few generations ago.
Anyway, I contacted my mom’s eldest sister who has a phenomenal memory to try to get the names of her grandparents, great-grandparents, their spouses, siblings, etc, and the same task I requested of my father’s younger brother.
It took them quite a long time but finally, a skeletal family tree has been constructed, populated by people from three generations back, but now he has lost interest in the whole project!

Written for Six Sentences Story- Tree, hosted by Girlie on the edge’s blog – Denise
#Keepitalive
#SSS
Awesome story, Sadje. I love the premis and the twist at the end. Kudos.
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Thank you so much Suzette
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Always a pleasure, Sadje
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🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
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Geezz, i’m reminded of the days my kids were in grade school and their teachers would ask them to make/draw a family tree..and it was a very difficult task ..
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Oh yes, it’s very difficult, especially if there aren’t many records available.
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Nice Six Sadje. I have an aunt on my Mom’s side who went nuts with the family tree thing years ago. Bought the software and the ancestry.com membership. The whole nine yards. She provided a copy of the file to my parents who then completed a large portion of my Dad’s family tree. In all honesty it doesn’t really interest me on a grand scale but it is interesting to look at the branches when my parents, now in their 80’s, pull it out because they found some new long lost relative to fit onto one of the branches.
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It must be interesting to find new relatives ! We don’t have any facilities like DNA testing for family connections here.
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Great story, sadje! Although family trees are so fun to draw it can be quite an exhausting task as well.
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It is very exhausting experience. But if there are people of older generation around them it becomes easier
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Fun story Sadje.. i have bits and pieces. It’s a job!💖
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Thanks a lot Cindy
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You’re most welcome always! 💖💖
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💖
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Great story, Sadje. Family trees are so much fun. 💕
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Thanks Grace! They are fun if someone has done research on it and you have the facts.
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I get a little bit of a thrill with researching. I see it as a little mystery, so the whole thing is a fun giant puzzle for me. Hope it comes together smoothly for you, my friend.💕
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It’s difficult for me as there aren’t records easily available.
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Completely understandable. Good luck, my friend.💕
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Thank you
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Welcome💕🙏💕
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🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
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Had many smiles, the way you took the story to the logical end
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Thanks a lot Philo
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You are welcome Sadje
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💜
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Great story! Is this a true one, Mam¿ I’ve wanted to make a family tree too. But sadly, no one else is interested to help me in finding the long lost connections.
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Thanks Anisha. It’s very true and like you there’s little help for me. 😃
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All that effort and he lost interest, oh dear! I’m useless at family history matters but fortunately, my daughter’s a mine of information!
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I think you have the advantage of records of birth and death available. We don’t have a systemized arrangement too keep these records. I still have that piece of paper. I think I’ll send it to him anyways.
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Family trees are not easy in our part of the world. Our older generations were not very good at keeping records.
So sad that he lost interest.
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Spot on Punam! We share a culture and the drawbacks of it!
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It sounds so interesting to find out how far back you can go to find relatives. I’ve not tried, but thankfully I do have a few things on one side of my family. One wrote down all she knew, and it went back pretty far. And I have some photos, too. 🙂
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That must be a big help. Thanks
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What a labor intensive project Sadje. Your brother may not be interested any more but perhaps there are other family members who are and even want to continue with documenting the tree 🙂
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Yes, perhaps the younger generation will be more interested and appreciative of the effort. Thanks Denise
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Wonderful write, Sadje. My Uncle took up a task like this one years ago, and was able to construct one going back 150 years. It was quite impressive.
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Oh wow! That is very impressive. Whole of the family can now benefit
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Indeed! 😁
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💖
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The family tree is very interesting and fun. We are all family members take interest in this when our parents talk about grandparents and their lifetime and their lifestyle.
I know 3 generations of our family from both sides mean from mom’s family and dad’s family.
And also known origin of our family.
When we start talking about it we can’t realize how much time we have spent on this conversion. It’s really great fun to draw a family tree.
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Thanks Memoona. You’re lucky to have so much information available. You should save it for future generations.
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Thank you, Sadje☺
IN SHA ALLAH I will👍
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All the best my friend
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Thank you my dear🤗🙂
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You’re welcome
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That often happens, it’s the excitement of chasing the initial lead which wanes 🙁
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Yes, very true. And everyone is so busy these days that we forget what and why we wanted it in the first place for.
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Oh NO, all that work and he lost interest?!
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Perhaps he’ll ask for it next year!
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Perhaps 🙂 🙂
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😅
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My grandfather left behind one, but it has not been updated 🙂 A brother-in-law painted one with pictures pasted on it, when his wife was pregnant. He painted a mango to represent the unborn child. His daughter is still teased about being a mango.
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Lol! That’s good that someone made an effort.
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Ain’t it the way? Big project encouraged by the person who is first to lose interest and leave the work to the others.
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Haha! You’ve said it. 👍🏼
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Funnily enough, sorting through my mother’s papers (she’s just gone into a nursing home at the grand old age of almost 93) I came across a family tree someone on her side of the family did about 25 years ago. We’re going to have a smile or two going through it after all these years.
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How interesting.
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Although I’ve only helped my brother with information on a family tree it is wonderful to see the end results.
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I’m sure it would be. There is a lot of ease if one can find official records of births and deaths dating hundreds of years back.
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These are the questions Bigger Girl is asking Grandma and Grandpa now, so she can have it all while the information is still available.
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Yes, the answers lie with older generations.
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Bravo Sadje! My eldest cousin and I did the same thing recently. With most of the elder generation departed, we had to rely on memories, photos and a good deal of documents (luckily) we managed to save over the years. Hats off to my cuz… she has a detective-like ability for finding out information!
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How wonderful. It does need a lot of dedication and commitment to complete this task. Thanks
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My grandma is really into family history and has compiled a pretty extensive binder full of information from several branches of the family tree. 😀
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How wonderful. Thanks for sharing
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The last sentence though 😆 I must ask. Are these real stories or fictional?
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This one is very real.
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Oh no!!! Maybe he will have interest again.
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Yes, perhaps. Thanks Belladonna
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