Yesterday at Thanksgiving, my mother said something that made me think. Everyone was beginning to arrive at our house and I was in the kitchen preparing the meal. The entry door is in our kitchen, so people were coming in and removing their shoes and coats. They were also not moving from the kitchen once their shoes and coats were off, they were just kind of hanging around and collecting in there. It was beginning to bother me, and I felt crowded and as if I were being watched. Some of the guests were asking what they could do to help. I told them (politely of course) that the most helpful thing that they could do was leave the kitchen and congregate elsewhere so that I could focus on the getting the food ready.
No one was offended, and all (okay almost all) of them moved into the living room. A little while later, my mother poked her head into the kitchen and informed me that my desire to have the kitchen to myself was a trait that my great grandmother also had. I was fairly young when my great grandmother passed away, and I had visited her in Texas when I was very, very small. I had no memory of what it was like to be at her house, or what she was like as a person. It was definitely an interesting feeling to be told that I was acting in a way that she would have acted.
Sometimes we learn about the quirks and personalities of our ancestors when others see them being expressed by someone else in the family. I wonder what other quirks or traits I share with my ancestors – am I like my great grandmother in any other ways? What about other relatives, am I anything like them? Learning about what my ancestors were like as people is my favorite part of learning about my family’s history. The next time I catch myself shooing guests out of the kitchen so that I can cook, I will think about my great grandmother who used to do the same. Do you have any quirks that you share with your ancestors?