My Family Heritage

My Family Heritage

Family Defined

The word family has changed so much in the past century. A family back in the 1950’s was probably considered a husband, wife, and one or more children. Times have changed and families have become much different. The Interpersonal Communication: Relating to Others book defines family as a, “Unit made up of any number of persons who live in relationship with one another over time in a common living space who are usually, but not always, united by marriage and kinship” (Beebe, Beebe & Redmond, 243). Families can be broken up into five different types. The first is the traditional family, which includes a mother, father, and their biological children. Next, is the blended family which includes two adults and children, but because of divorce they may have children of other parents. Unfortunately, single-parent families are being seen more often. Extended families include parents, children, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins and any other close relatives. The extended families are commonly found in Asian and Hispanic cultures. The last category is the dual income parents without any kids. They are known as “dinks”.

Families in the United States are very special because of the “melting pot” that took place in our country’s early history. Thousands of immigrants from other countries came to the United States bringing with them their culture and family traditions. Finding out our family history and becoming aware of the stories behind our names, culture, and traditions can be a very interesting and fun experience. The assignment of our paper was to talk to our parents and other relatives to discover our family history.

Mother’s side

My mother’s maiden name is Patricia ...

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...s and stories. I heard stories of my parents dating and how they got together. I heard the funny stories about how my parents got engaged and married. I even learned I urinated on the doctor when I was born! The neat thing about my birth is my mom woke up at 4 in the morning when she was pregnant with me. The hospital in Austin is a 30 minute drive. I was born at 5 in the morning so I was a quick baby my mother said.

This was time consuming assignment because of the large amount of communication required for all of the research. The value of the information gathered is priceless because I can now pass on all of the family stories and traditions to my kids someday. I have heard some of the stories before, but I always learn new information every time my parents talk about our family history. I will continue to keep the family tree growing in my family.