As I researched my family history I came up with the conclusion that whether we like it or not we are just like our family before us. It was more clear to realize after I fully completed my genogram. This project forced me to look back at and think deeply about my family’s past for the first time in my life. It is amazing how several different patterns of characteristics and behaviors can be passed down through several generations and remain the same without change. There have always been similarities among my family members that I have unseemingly noticed, but these traits throughout my family never registered as a pattern in my mind. This project helped me discover, identify, and understand these patterns.
One of the main characteristic patterns that I found on my genogram is being Catholic. My mother’s side of the family is completely Catholic. The Catholic faith started with my great-grandparents and was passed down through my family. This pattern has now been passed down onto me, and it is a belief that has made a large impact on my life. I was surprised to find that no one on the entire side of my family has discontinued their faith and ended this pattern that has lasted four generations.
Another characteristic pattern that is shown through my genogram is being Christian. My entire family is, for the most part, very religious. My Dad’s side of the family is different from my mother’s family because they are not Catholic. However they still have a strong faith in God and go to church regularly. Yet not all of my family is religious. My uncles Rick, Mark, and Laine are not Christian or Catholic. The only time they attend church is during Christmas and Easter when all of our family is together.
One very distinctive characteristic in my family is an above average height. A lot of the people in my family are tall. The average height of a male in the United States is five foot and ten inches tall. My dad is six foot and four inches tall. My brother is also six foot and four inches tall. I am now stand at six foot and eleven inches tall and am still growing. I am the tallest person in our school and town and there really isn’t anyone close to my height in the town. While you may think that we are outliers in the family regarding height, we really aren’t. Nearly all of the men in my family are at least six feet tall or taller. Many of them exceed this height and the national and world averages.
Many of the people on my mom’s side of the family are skinny. The Maerz family is known for being tall, which I talked about earlier, and being skinny. I can not think of any grandparents, uncles, aunts, or cousins on my mom’s side of the family who are overweight or could be considered as fat. I do not know why this is such a prevalent trait. Everyone in my family has always had enough to eat, and have never been starved. If anything, we eat too much food.
The other side of my family is a completely different story. My dad’s side of the family has a pattern of being overweight or obese. Several of my uncles and aunts are overweight. Specifically, my uncle Mark and aunt Susie are a little on the heavy side. My dad is also overweight. My cousins, Wade and Jake, who are my fathers age, are also overweight. This is also a little bit surprising because many of the people on this side of the family are very active even with their size.
In three different generations of my family, there has been at least one person who was in the military. There is a big sense of patriotism in my family. We value our freedom very highly. Several members of my family decided to help protect these freedoms by serving in the armed forces. My great-grandpa was the first person to be in the military. Then he was followed by my grandpa Mike and his brother Paul. My cousin Noah even entered the Air Force and followed in the family footsteps. On my Dad’s side of the family, his brothers Laine and Mark both also served too.
Basketball has been a family tradition for a very long time. My grandma, Sue, played basketball in high school. My mom and my dad played basketball in high school and even went on to play the sport in college. They actually met for the first time while lifting weights for basketball. Today, my brother, sister, and I all play basketball. Several of my cousins also enjoy playing the sport.
There is not a distinct pattern of people in my family working the same work field. My mom is a teacher. My dad is a doctor (chiropractor). One of my grandpa’s was a fireman. One pattern that runs in my family, however, is a sense of entrepreneurship. My great-grandpa, George, started and ran his own business to make a living. My grandpa, Dwain, ran his own hog and trucking businesses. My uncle, Rick, also created and ran his own fishing business. Rick was also a principal and recently retired.
Several of the people in my family have obtained a college degree. My parents place a very high value on education, which is a feeling that has been passed down through generations. My great-grandpa, George, was the first to graduate from college in my family. He graduated from Luther College. My grandpa, Dwain, was very reluctant to attend college, but eventually his parents convinced him to go to Luther College. My grandma, Jean also attended college at Luther, which is where her and my grandfather met. My parents both attended and graduated from Marycrest University in the Quad Cities. They also went on to pursue further education. My mom received her Masters in education from Viterbo University. My Dad received his doctorate from Palmer College. I plan to follow in the family footsteps and graduate from college after high school.
One trait that is very common in my family, and probably most families, is being right handed. It is predicted that ninety percent of the people in the world are right handed. My family follows suit with these statistics. With this though, my brother Damon is an outlier. He is the only person in my family who is left-handed.
There are lots of different patterns of characteristics and traits that are prevalent throughout my family history and genogram. Over the course of this project, I was surprised by some of the patterns that I discovered. I had no idea that so many people in my family were entrepreneurs. Even with all of these similarities, however, I noticed that each member of my family was a unique individual.
There are many different moments in life that can be described as stressful. I, myself, have had lots of demanding and difficult times. The most stressful moment of my life so far would have to be when Damon dislocated his hip. In middle school he dislocated my hip during a championship football game in Burlington on Halloween. He was told that he might never walk again and that his leg might need to be amputated. I actually was playing in the game when it happened and I had to wait until afterwards to go and see him. I didn’t want to leave the hospital that night but eventually my parents convinced me to go with my sister, my aunt, and uncle (Philip’s family) to go trick or treating to get my mind off of what had happened.
Eventually everything worked out, but it was a very trying time. Instead of choosing three stressful events from my own life, I decided to pick significant events from my relatives’ lives. Other people in my family have also had stressful moments. When my grandpa Dwain was seven, his older brother was killed in a car accident while his dad was driving. My grandma Jean also had a tough time when her sister Norma was killed in an airplane crash. She also struggled severely when her brother John Corlett Jr. committed suicide in the police office after a shift (he was a police officer). He was an alcoholic and struggled with depression, but had been sober for some time when he ended up taking his life after work one day.
