Growing Like Dandelions...
When you look up your family tree, you find all kinds of information about all kinds of people. With the advent of easy, relatively inexpensive travel, more and more of our ethnic backgrounds are mixed, and so we have radically different customs, habits, and languages in our family trees. What we, and our very different ancestors have in common, is that we and they persisted. Family members may have been poor or wealthy, independent, or co-dependent, behaved well or poorly by their societies' standards, but they survived long enough to have children. It reminds me of the phrase "Dandelions root forever!" And in Russian, where there are over 200 distinct varieties of dandelion, it's "Одуванчики укореняются навсегда!" Because Russia's at war with Ukraine, I've translated it to Ukrainian, as well: "Корінь кульбаби назавжди!" The state or country of Ukraine is an excellent example of what it means to be like dandelions.
Sometimes, having children is pretty much all some ancestors were able to do, if they were alcoholic, or addicted in some other way. And yet, there is good in addicted people, and even those that criminally misbehave often have a soft spot for widows, or children, or distant relatives. You never really know. That's what makes family histories fascinating.
People are a lot like dandelions. They have, most of them, bright beginnings, then survive and grow up in unexpected situations and places. Like dandelions, you can't keep families from having children, then making some kind of history or impact on others. Like gardeners trying to eradicate weeds, it's very difficult to completely extinguish all the representatives of any kind of family. Look at the histories of descendants of the Irish, Africans in America, Hispanics, and others. In spite of poor or hostile treatment, each generation produces beautiful, talented families, that then continue to the present day.
