I recently saw someone describe Spiritual Ancestry as Genealogy meets Ancestral Healing.
It made me again think of our deep spiritual connection with our ancestors. There is something inside us that wants to know more. I know that Genealogy can bring to life your family story that may be filled with excitement and lore but when you are feeling unsettled, genealogy can also find the answers that sometimes lie in the stories of our ancestors. Those questions often arise when we become confused about our lives, our purpose…Why are we here?
I had a client who came to me because the relationship between her father and her grandfather was strained. It caused her anxiety. She was in her 70’s and they had both passed away but she continued to carry this with her. I told her that you can sometimes find the answers in your genealogy. So we looked. She grew up in a Middle America Christian family. Her father had gone to Harvard and was academic. He was a professor at a college. When I looked back in her genealogy, I saw very quickly that her grandfather had changed the family name. I gently shared with her that she was of Jewish ancestry and that was something she never knew. This was dramatic information that changed the way she thought about herself and her family. She became emotional. But she became emotional because she had alway felt an affinity for the Jewish people and now she understood why.
It is likely her grandfather carried the trauma of his ancestors and thought he was protecting his family. His son, in fact, may have not gotten into Harvard in the 1930's if it was known he was Jewish. To this day she does not know if her father had knowledge of his true family name but we know that her grandfather and her fathers unresolved emotional feelings came through her.
And it is now known that Trauma not healed is passed down from one generation to the next until the healing takes place..
Just like us our Ancestors had personal stories that were woven together with the historical events of their time … having come to this country to escape what was happening in their own countries, famine, war, oppression or just seeking a more prosperous way of life. Whatever it was that brought them here they came for a better life.
Genealogy can help unlock the secrets and the traumas of the past, offering a tool for Ancestral healing and a much deeper understanding of who you are. And Amazingly as you go through the Healing Process it can bring understanding and forgiveness along with the knowledge that we also carry the Blessings of our Ancestors as well .
As always I would love to hear your thoughts or your stories..
We will talk again soon,
~Bernadette
Tell Me Our Story
If you are not familiar with ancestral healing I have included two articles below, but there is much more written about it. You only need to research “Healing Ancestral Trauma”
P.S. If you would like to receive a free gift "6 steps to discovering your family story" see
below.