how much do you know about your family history?

i mean, ok, for sure you know the same old stories told at family tables, about how different things were back then, when your parents used to be kids. and how they met, and how their relations with their families used to look like, more or less. but, anything more than that?

i decided i need to know more about my family, so last nite i started a walk with my father and went through the family tree back to my great grand father, then when we coming back home we included my mum and sister in the conversation over a bottle of wine. i can tell you it's one of the most rewarding history sessions and there's a lot lot more to know about my family (both my father's and my mother's side).

the stories are not only interesting because i don't know much about my grandfather's 5 brothers and sisters for example, but also because there's life lessons in there as times were more difficult. i know that's what they always say, but the truth is that there's the history of two world wars and how they affected the life of our family, the civil war in Greece after WWII, a dictatorship in the 60's - 70's, the Russian revolution in 1917 which caused my great grand father to stay in Russia for a long while, and finally Greek-Turkish relations which caused my great grand father's family to leave Istanbul where they used to live all the way till 1927.

It seems like the entire history of the 20th century has played a big role in the way my family evolved. and there's still so much more to know!