This morning over breakfast I flipped TV channels and caught half of the genealogy program, Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. I almost never watch these genealogy shows but this morning something said to watch. As the program continued, I realized why I needed to watch. It linked to work I'm doing but my work is on a much deeper level than what is done on the TV show. You can't show everything on TV and I'm wondering if the show's guests are given mental health or spiritual processing tools to process the shocking moments they learn about their families.

Are You Ignoring What You Discover?

One question I ask clients and people in my workshops is how are they processing the bombshell genealogy or military details they discover. Are they ignoring what they find? Denying they found it? Logging the information into a family tree and moving on? Processing it and talking to family about it? Healing and releasing it?

I believe we when we start our research we tend to ignore what we discover on an emotional and spiritual level. There was no instruction in the genealogy community when I started research in 1996 on how to process the shocking details. The military research community has ignored the healing aspect completely. Since 2017, I had many clients show up to work with me asking specifically for healing and answers that went far beyond where dad served and if he was wounded or died.

It has only been in the last few years that the research community is even "allowed" to talk about these things at national or local conferences. Even when it is allowed, it is heavily censored. I don't agree with this approach of censorship.

The Importance of Processing the Shocking Details

Many studies have been conducted (primarily on Holocaust Survivors and descendants) on inherited trauma, also known as multigenerational trauma, transgenerational trauma. This means that the traumas our parents, grandparents, and ancestors endured, that went unprocess and unintegrated are passed through our DNA and we unconsciously carry their trauma. Until it shows up in our lives and we are forced to face it. If we continue to ignore it, it will show up in different and often disease killing ways.

It takes courage to face our own childhood and adult wounds and trauma and those of our ancestors. It is not fun work that we can post all over social media. It is more private and often extremely emotional. However, if we face the past and do the healing work, there is tremendous peace and possibility on the other side.

So where do we start to learn about how to process what we discover?

You can start by exploring what's offered at the Ancestral Souls Wisdom School. I take my years of research, genealogy and military, plus my own healing journey and share it in blog posts, classes, and through private facilitation/coaching as needed. Sign up for a workshop or private session. Let's use tools you may already know about to really look at what exists in your ancestral lineage.

Read the studies on inherited trauma and see what you can discover about the healing process.

Explore different energetic and quantum healing modalities. What works for one person does not work for another. In fact, I've worked with many modalities in the last 10 years because what helps me heal for a while does not always work. The more healing work we do peeling away those layers, different modalities are required to move us to the next level of spiritual growth and ascension.

A Family Trauma

I'll share a couple of family trauma stories with you. One you can learn about in my 2-webinar workshop The Family's War Secrets which you will find on my webinar page.

Another story features Josef Subrt (Joseph Schubert), pictured in this article. When I learned about his life and his death in 1996-1997, I did what everyone did. I put it into my database and moved on. The impact of his death did not hit me until the last couple of years as I worked through and healed my grandma Libbie Brouk Holik's life and story. She was his granddaughter. I am the great great (2x great) granddaughter.

Josef committed suicide by hanging and Libbie found him. The family story was, as an immigrant, he couldn't take life in America anymore. He had lived here several decades before he killed himself. 

Facts:

Josef was born in Bohemia 1860. 

He, his wife, and my great grandma Anna immigrated in 1892.

Josef took his life in 1934 at the age of 73.

Was this the actual reason he took his life? Was something else going on?

Josef is one ancestor I will be investigating on a deeper level in the coming months to see if I can discover anything else in his life that may have created his mental state. There is no one still living who can help me with this.

I do question how this event affected my grandma Libbie. She was a new mother when she discovered him with two small children at home. How did that affect my grandpa who had his own mental health issues due to his WWII service? How did that affect the rest of the family who were still to be born, like my dad and myself?

Josef's story is tied to Libbie's and mine. It is time to look at this in a new way and heal my past.

We all have stories like this in our family tree. My invitation to you is to look at your research in a new way and identify these traumas. Work with someone like me who can help you see what's right in front of you in the records and your family stories and life. Heal yourself and your ancestors.

Do you need private support with this? I offer facilitation/coaching sessions where we can work 1-1 on your research and healing. I also offer many workshops to help you explore this on your own.

If you have questions about healing inherited trauma, please reach out at [email protected]. I'm happy to have a conversation.

If you would like to explore more of your research and family stories and start writing those stories, sign up for my free workshop, Healing the Roots: Words, Wounds, Wisdom. It might just change how you look at yourself and your family and help you start writing the stories.

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