Every family has a history, not one person's history, but a history of everyone we are descended from and ancestors to, all our relations. It can go years or decades or centuries, stretching backward and forward in time, with multiple tributaries and branches. It is past, present, and future, but it is constantly changing, currents in a flowing river of time.
And for every person, family history is different, with different sets of ancestors. For myself and my brother, at least, it's the same set of ancestors and probably many of the same genes, but for everyone else in what I call my family, the possibilities are shuffled and redealt. My children share all my family ancestors, but it's only half of what they hold as heritage. My first cousins share half of the same family history and many of the same genes. Beyond those relationships, to third cousins and grandsons, so many other currents affect them differently that it is a wonder how we hold together this thing we call family.
