“In all of us there is a hunger, marrow-deep, to know our
heritage—to know who we are and where we have come from. Without this enriching
knowledge, there is a hollow yearning.”
Alex Haley
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| Henry Bigler, Stephen Courtright's great-great grandfather |
It was usually after we crossed the Wyoming border when my
father—who each summer packed our family of seven into a mini-van to drive
1,400 miles from Wisconsin to Idaho to visit family—would begin telling his
travel-weary children stories of their “western heritage.” There were stories
told of ancestors like my great-great grandfather Charley Courtright, a young
backwoods blacksmith in California who stole the heart of a beautiful, proper
English woman in a love story which rivals that of any other in the Old West.
Dad also told of ancestors like Henry Bigler, who after joining The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS Church) traversed nearly the entire
western U.S. landscape as a member of the Mormon Battalion, an outfit in the
Mexican-American War credited with undertaking the longest domestic military march
in U.S. history.
At times, my father must have felt that such stories were
falling on deaf, uninterested ears. Yet, year after year, on those long treks
across the western wilderness, the storytelling persisted. Why would Dad
continue telling us of our heritage, even while being uncertain that his
children would actually appreciate the stories? Now as a young father myself, I
can see why.
We live in a world where it is increasingly difficult for
family members to create strong, lasting bonds. Moreover, youth and adults
alike are increasingly being given mixed messages about their worth and where
that worth comes from, resulting in less resilience to life’s challenges and
undermined faith in Jesus Christ. Parents and others like myself are thus
asking themselves, “How can we strengthen bonds in our family?”, “How can we
help our children to be more self-confident and resilient?” and “How can we
develop greater individual and collective faith in Jesus Christ?”
This is why I love family history—because, perhaps
surprisingly, it helps families and individuals to address each of these
questions. In particular, let me highlight two blessings that can come from
discovering and sharing about our family heritage.
1. Discovering and sharing about our heritage strengthens
family bonds and helps individuals to be more resilient to life’s challenges.
Recently, I was intrigued by a study discussed in the New
York Times and conducted by a group of Emory University psychologists who
showed that the single best predictor of children’s emotional well-being and
happiness was the extent to which children knew about their family history.
Moreover, the researchers found that the more children knew the history of
their families, the more successfully they believed their families functioned.
Finally, families who told family history narratives which emphasized both the
“ups” and “downs” of life had the most resilient children. All of these
findings were attributed to family members forming a strong “intergenerational
self”, or a sense that they belonged to something greater than themselves.
The implications of this study are profound. They show that
family history is more than just an activity for “old” people, or a ploy to
keep children quiet in a crowded mini-van (as I used to think on those long
treks from Wisconsin to Idaho). Moreover, it is not just a process of
collecting birth and death dates, such as finding out that Charley Courtright
lived from 1853-1921. Instead, family history is about discovering the dash
that lies between those dates—the life stories of these ancestors. And it is in
“discovering the dash” and weaving family stories into a narrative that the
blessings of strong family bonds and greater resiliency become more attainable.
For that and other reasons, across the global LDS Church and
well as in our College Station congregation, there has been an ongoing emphasis
on helping members to discover their heritage. In turn, I have witnessed how
“discovering the dash” has helped our members, particularly our youth, to build
stronger family bonds and become more resilient.
For instance, during a recent activity on a Wednesday
evening, the youth in our congregation each used laptops and other devices to
look at their family tree and to input stories and pictures of their ancestors
on the familysearch.org website, which is sponsored by the LDS Church. While
standing in the background and observing the youth, I noticed that one youth,
who was reading a story of a grandfather whom she had never met, began to weep.
Just as I was about to ask her if everything was okay, a friend sitting nearby
asked her that same question. In response, I overheard the youth tell her
friend: “Sometimes, when I’m reading about my grandparents, I am just overwhelmed
by how grateful I am for them. It’s amazing to see that they faced similar
challenges as me, and I know I can be helped through my trials just like they
were.”
2. Discovering our heritage can draw us nearer to the Savior
Jesus Christ.
Yet, beyond even those blessings, I have found in my own
life that discovering my heritage has drawn me closer to the Savior. I learned
this lesson as a young LDS missionary in Chile.
Though my trials were not unique to what many young and
inexperienced missionaries face, I struggled at first with learning a new
language, the effects of food poisoning, and pangs of homesickness. I was
admittedly doubtful as to how I could complete a two-year mission when the
challenges I faced at the time seemed insurmountable. However, in the midst of
those challenges, I remembered the stories about Henry Bigler that my father
had shared all those years ago in our crowded mini-van.
Shortly after his service in the Mormon Battalion, Henry was
part of the first group of LDS missionaries in Hawaii. Like me, Henry struggled
with learning a new language and experienced bouts of homesickness and
difficult adjustments to the new culture. However, unlike what I went through,
Henry spent the nearly three years on his mission without a single pair of
shoes, and he faced persecution and sicknesses to a degree that I could
scarcely imagine.
Nevertheless, while I did not face nearly as dire of
circumstances, I felt the presence of Henry Bigler encouraging me on in my
missionary service. Indeed, thanks to the narratives shared by my father, I
remembered how the Savior, through His grace, had strengthened Henry in his
afflictions and how he had come to know the Lord through the sacrifices he made
on his mission. I came to know that the Lord could do the same for me if, like
Henry, I pressed on in His service.
In the end, my mission to Chile turned out to be the
greatest adventure I could have ever experienced as a 19-21 year old young man.
Though some will surely argue with me on this point, I believe that no young
man was affected or changed more by an LDS mission than I was. I came to know
the Savior and His mercy, a process that was aided by an ancestor who had died
100 years earlier but with whom I found a kinship as real as any earthly
kinship. I continue to feel Henry Bigler’s presence in my life and feel nearer
to Jesus Christ as a result.
And that is why I love family history.
“In all of us there is a hunger, marrow-deep, to know our
heritage.” I invite all who read this post to respond to this hunger and
“discover the dash” as it relates to their own heritage. In doing so, I pray
that you will be able to strengthen family bonds, be more resilient to life’s
challenges, and draw nearer to Jesus Christ, who I testify is the Savior and
Redeemer of the world.
***For more information on doing family history, visit
familysearch.org or, if you live in the B/CS area, visit our church’s Family
History Center at 2500 Barak Lane in Bryan.***
Stephen Courtright is an assistant professor in the Mays
Business School at Texas A&M University and currently serves as second
counselor of the College Station 3rd Ward bishopric of The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints. He grew up in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin and Kuna,
Idaho and served a full-time mission for the Church in Concepcion, Chile from
2002-2004. He later graduated from Brigham Young University-Idaho and the
University of Iowa. He and his wife, Nicole, met when they were six years old
and grew up together as close friends. They married in 2004 and are the proud
parents of three children.
