Who Do We Think We Are?

What are the benefits of family history research for career development? What I learned from my side project has added a new dimension to my role as a career coach.

The main chat in the career sector is around the future of work, planning ahead and the journey in front of us. But there’s gold in looking to the past, particularly for self-understanding. Our ancestral roots can have great bearing on our lives and work, as I’ve discovered from my Graphic Novel design about a by-gone family member.

Over the last two years I’ve been on a personal genealogical adventure and collected some nuggets of insight that have enlightened my professional learning as a career coach. It turns out, exploring your family history deepens self-understanding, builds your sense of identity and develops an array of skills useful for life, learning and work.

"we look to our ancestors to inform and make sense of our own identity" Alison Brie.

The warp and weft of the lives of our ancestors can have as much influence on our nurture as their DNA has on our nature. It can be amazing to discover that generations back there was a family member whose life, interests and convictions are closely-knitted with our own ones in the present. Many people who know their genealogical history remark at being the first in their family to go to university, embodying social mobility of modern times; or know they come from a ‘long-line’ of their occupation. Some can identify with a kindred spirit they feel they’ve gleaned their whole character and career choices from, without having ever met them; some even learn of a villain they have actively lived a life in spite of, helping to clarify their own values. One way or another, we are at least in some way bearing residue of our ancestors’ lives and career journeys; we are a living echo of the past.

Anyone who has watched Who Do You Think You Are? will have spotted the shift-change in celebrities’ demeanours when they are introduced to a long-gone family member whose lives and careers paralleled their own, like Lee Mack and his comedian great-grandfather or Sir Ian McKellan’s discovery of a theatrical relative. Knowing who came before us helps us make sense of who we are today.

“[people] who know about where they came from alter how they see the world, and understanding their family history can help them understand who they are.” Grosskopf

When I researched my own great-grandfather, Thomas Carmichael, a ship steward said to have been murdered in Depression-era New York, I found both a kindred spirit and someone with a myriad of differences from me. I have reflected: would I have made his choices? Led his life? Not having sea legs, I certainly wouldn't have had his occupation. Some parts of Thomas’s life have intrigued me, some parts have alarmed. But like any career coach would, I've examined his story, lifestyle and choices with curiosity and as a little judgement as possible. It's my coach-like curiosity that has led me to turn all of the stones to reveal the bigger picture of this man who, for the last 80 years, was someone my family had only the sketchiest knowledge of. (Word to the wise, after they’re unturned there’s no putting them back!)

“These steps, a type of meta-cognition, revealed some of the processes students experienced in thinking about how certain structural dimensions, and even geographic locations, shaped their families and influenced their values about interacting with people.”

Priti P. Desai, Bernice A. Dodor, and Elizabeth B. Carroll

Once you embark upon a genealogical search, you can become insatiable for knowledge, and locating those essential nuggets of information requires some skill. In the past two years I've built a wealth of knowledge around research, archives, cataloguing and presenting information, geography, social history, and the influence of changing political context, all in an effort to make sense of family roots. I recognise the value this has for all of our self-understanding, and particularly in relation to our career development.

The effect manifests in a greater sense of self-confidence, an increase in self-understanding, and a greater resolve to improve personally." Matthew L. Reiser

My own curiosity has been the driver for a wealth of discovery about my ancestor and, having found Thomas, I've found a little more of myself too. Though we exist a century part, I’ve done my best to work with my great-grandfather to learn his full story - scandals and all - and hopefully I’ve done him justice in the graphic novel pictorial biography I’ve made of his life, which I’m crowdfunding to publish this summer.

What connection do you feel to your ancestors? What influence have they unwittingly had on your career journey? Are you working with clients to consider what influence their family history has on their career present? I’d love to hear YOUR story.

Inspire your clients and learners to explore the influence of their family history with My Great Grandfather, the Alien. You can back the campaign and pre-order a copy here.

#ancestry #genealogy #familyhistory #careers #identity #selfunderstanding

#selfawareness #graphicnovels