Having a child is not a ticket to immortality. You have no assurance that your child will have a child - even if they do, the most you are going to be remembered for is two, maybe three additional generations - by your grandchildren, if you have them, and possibly by your great-grandchildren, if you live long enough to see them get to mid-childhood.
Absolutely.
I've gotten into genealogy these past 6 months. I love the stuff - such old gossip to spread around the family
Also, a lot of forgotten history. Generations back, I had an ancestor who worked the Underground Railroad. Also, a branch who were Quakers. We have a common ancestor who bred several distinguished branches with the last name "Lee" - as in Robert E. Lee. Thing is, until the last 6 months, when I started rooting around and researching,
nooooo one knew about that history.
I sometimes think it a bit ironic: an adamant CFer who is interested in families and inheritance. But, perhaps it is because I am CF and have
LOTS more time to devote to it than my childed family members that I am able to resurrect all these lost and forgotten connections. That might be my bit of immortality: not breeding a new generation, but reviving the history of the generations that came before us. But, once my siblings - now of an age that they are, or could be, grandparents - are gone and their grandkids are old (something that will occur in about 60 years), I doubt if the current generation is remembered. Unless someone is interested in taking the family history I'm gathering and is willing to maintain it. That's a crapshoot right there.
