Importance of Personal and Family History
It is important to record and preserve our personal and family history to ensure the learning and experience of past generations will continue to bless future generations. It has been said that “those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it” and that “a people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture, are like a tree without roots.”
Spencer W. Kimball said, “get a good notebook, a good book that will last through time and into eternity for the angels to look upon. Begin today and write in it your goings and your comings, your deeper thoughts, your achievements, and your failures, your associations and your triumphs, your impressions and your testimonies.” He also said, “I promise you that if you will keep your journals and records, they will indeed be a source of great inspiration to your families, to your children, your grandchildren, and others, on through the generations… and as our posterity read of our life’s experiences, they, too, will come to know and love us.”
Every individual and community, every society and culture, can learn from the experience of others if a record has been collected, preserved, and shared. Each of us has a responsibility to write, record, or chronicle our life’s experience to benefit those who will come after. As such, we invite each of our friends to start today, by recording their personal and family history; then share it with others, especially the rising generation.
— Felipe Chou