ST. CATHARINES CONCORDIA - Brock University

E~win A. Brcsc: BLOOD AND WATER 11
are found together. Separate facl Crom I'iclion. It is fascinating how stories grow into
fairy tales in the retelling!
The same process occurs for the canonizing of saints. Molly spent most of her
rnal~ied life grumbling about salty old Sam and the way he treated her. He drank
heavily and demanded so much of her that pastor, friends, and rclativcs wondered if
she nccded proteclion from this ogre. Yet when old San1 died, hilolly had nothing but
to say about him. Evcn by the time of the funeral she told the pastor that he was
the best husband any woman could want. The grandchildren heard nothing but how
old Grandpa way. The stories grew like Pinocchio's nose.
Keeping an accurate log will help you rcmcmbcr what ground ~ OLI have covcrcd.
Chcck places where records are kept: churches, civic archives, national archives.
Public records contain ship logs, birth, deaths, marriages, land transfers, probate court
reports, census, etc. The Latter Day Saints' free public libraries are geared toward
genealogical research and have vasl amounts oI' material on nlicrofilrn that can be
brought from Salt Lake City to your local library for study.
At the same time, it would be advisable to leain family systems theory, at least in
a beginning way. The works ol' Musray Bowen, Edwin Priedrnan, or Peles Sleinke, a
Lutheran pastor, are available to make more understandable the emotional systems
3
that make up our I'amily. If courses on family systems theory are available they could
be a great rcsourcc for the researcher. These studies can aid in helping identify the
rolls of certain members of every family and how generations pass on these roles.
Such study can also be aided by the rereading or the Old Testament to see the way
the family of God rclatcd. A family tree of Abraham can be quite revealing; David's
can be shoclung. The interrelatedness of the Persons of the Trinity becomes a
fascinating family system study.
All of these become resources for the on-going, circular and unending study of
the family tree. There will be a back and forth, going over and returning to material
once thought irrelevant. Evcn if a sketch is produced to outline each person in the
family tree, there will be branches and off-shoots that continue to find attachment and
be instructive.
INHERENT DANGERS
As in any historical iearch, one is in danger ol'only finding that I'or which one 16
looking. If one is only finding thc honourable and pure, there is the suspicion that a
whole level 01 reality is missing. Then the whole p~oject runs the danger of being a
3 The following resouice books xe suegested for introductory reading in the whole area of Family Systems study
today: Franzmann, Martin, Follow Me: Discipleship According to Matthew, St. Louis: CPH, 1961; Friedmnn.
Edwin H. Grizei.otron to Generutmz Family Proccss in Church and Synagogue, NY: Guilford Press, 1985;
Ourman, Alan S. and Knistem, [)avid I' Ilr-i~~ilhook of l.'urmly I'hri-qy. NY: Hvunner Maxvcl, 198 1. "Fam~ly
System Theory and Therapy" by Michael Keu (on Mursay Bowen) pp. 226-266; Napie~.. Augustus with Cad
Whitaker, The Furrrilj Cru~iI~le. NY: I-Iarper and Row, 1978; Steinke, Pete~, How You1 Chirr-ch Fanrily Works.
Urideistundirzg Congregutions us Emotionul Systems, Waahinglon, DC.: The Albm Insdlu~r, 1993.