Rebuilding the family tree

To find a place, I had to rebuild my family tree.

Author

Chris Valdheims
November 11, 2023

Listen to this episode: “Rebuilding the family tree”

Every now and then, my kids have a family tree project for school.

It’s pretty straightforward, and you probably know what I am talking about, so I won’t belabor things here.

Anyway, these family tree projects filled me with dread for a long time. Mainly because of the confusion I felt around my family of origin growing up.

As a kid, when I would do them, I would do them based on my adoptive family tree and was often left feeling weird because I also knew that no matter how I may have felt or not felt connected with them, they were not my flesh-and-blood ancestors.

So, that left me feeling disconnected and unsure of where I fit in.

I wanted a connection with my ancestors, but it took me until adulthood to do that.

The family tree journey became a little more complicated because I was - and still am - not entirely sure of my father’s identity. I have an excellent idea, but if you listen to the podcast, you will see that things are a little complicated there.

So give it a listen.

Listen to this episode: “Rebuilding the family tree”

PS - What did you think? 🖤