Some of the most interesting stories that families pass on from generation to generation involve the circumstances surrounding the arrival of new family members. Babies bring great joy to families, and apparently so does telling stories about things that happened in relation to their births. Some of these stories involve where the births took place. Many families have family members that live at least a few hours away, if not much farther than that. This results in new family members being born in new and different places than the generations that were born before them. For example, when my son grows up, we will be able to tell him that he is a first generation Vermonter because I was born in Massachusetts, and my husband was born in Connecticut. In some families where children grow up and then settle down in a location close to their parents, new family members may be born in the same hospital where one or both of their parents were born. Sometimes the new baby is even welcomed into the world by one or more of the same people that helped to deliver their mother or their father. Those stories are certainly noteworthy and are likely to be shared for many years to come.
Other stories that parents tell their children about when they were born also become part of a family’s history. I have not heard many details from my own mother and father about when my sister and I were born, only a couple of small details. One was that I spent the night at home with my grandmother while my parents went to the hospital to give birth to my sister. The other was that I was born before ultrasounds were routinely used to disclose the gender of a baby prior to birth. I am not sure whether it was due to an inaccurate ultrasound or some other means by which my mother’s doctors predicted my gender, but they were wrong. They were sure I was a boy, and my parents had my name all picked out – Kyle James. They had even had pens made for their friends that were blue and said “It’s a boy”. Needless to say, the pens were never handed out and were stashed in my parents attic as a humorous reminder of the “son” they never had.
Birth stories and baby stories are just a couple of the stories that get passed down through families. The telling and retelling of family stories like these strengthens the bonds between parents, children, and grandchildren. Telling family stories is an important part of keeping family history alive.
Photo by presto44 on morguefile.com.