Now that so many people are limiting the number of children they have to one or two, I'm finding more inverted family pyramids. Example: a farm family in the Carolinas who had six to 12 children per woman in the 1800's and hundreds of descendants by 1900, three or four generations later is down to three nuclear families and so far one boy to possibly carry that family name forward. (The surname itself will not go extinct because it's fairly common, in this case.)
I was speculating, based on a theory of reincarnation that families tend to reincarnate to continue relationships, or work out problems, that this has to mean a lot of deceased ancestors are waiting in the spirit world for their chance. (Or they may just have to move on to a new family group!)
In my own family I suspect there are two people, now teenagers, who may be related to a couple - their great great grandparents, who would be my grandparents on one side. I have photos of them, but there are also children born, granted there are 16 great great grandparents, who look like no one alive. The mysteries of DNA! But what if these new people simply have inherited the genes of ancestors no one has a photo, drawing, etching, or painting of?
I want to say, "Ah you have so and so's ears!" but I can't prove it. It's easy to think that DNA is dictating the physicality, and the psychology (when there are say mental illnesses or learning differences) of the person, yet some reincarnation theorists feel sure that we someone pick out looks or have birth marks on our bodies where significant wounds occurred in a past life. In this case, someone who is mostly of dark Mediterranean heritage, looks like the Slavic grandmother/great-grandmother and has some of her mannerisms.
For those of you who do not believe in reincarnation and haven't even considered reading around it with a doubter's sensibility, I realize some of this is esoteric - or ridiculous. But whenever I read around children remembering their past life, or see videos about it on YouTube, I'm reminded that there is so much we do not know about our existence. Most of us believe we have an eternal part called the soul, and we disagree about what happens to it after this life we know.
As for reincarnating in a family to work out problems, in some cases I think it would be better if someone said "stop the insanity!" and reincarnated into a healthier family!
C 2017 Ancestry Worship Genealogy All Rights Reserved.
