Why One Ancestor at a Time?

It’s 2004 and I’m at a family reunion.

My Uncle gives me a mysterious brown paper bag that will change my life... forever! 

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Well ok, it’s not that mysterious, because on the bag is written in big letters:

“FAMILY TREE”. 

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But this is a very special bag.

I’ve spent my life looking for this family tree.

And now I have it, I devour it. 

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It looks pretty fancy, despite being a copy of a copy of a copy.

Lots of dates, names and coats of arms - but it made me realise...

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I knew next to nothing about the history in which these names lived.

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I started to change that, going on a history-reading binge that hasn’t really stopped to this day. 

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Knowing I had a stake in the game, in the form of my ancestors, made me more interested in facts and figures that otherwise don’t seem relevant. 

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As my learning widened, and I got perspectives from Samoan, Maori and Chinese cultures, I began to realise … history is not just some things that happened in the past. History has a profound effect upon all of us, right now. 

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Scratch any major conflict and you’ll uncover decades or centuries of complex layers. How do we start to understand the world around us? One Ancestor at a Time. 

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As a kid, I used to ask my mum dumb questions like, If we live in New Zealand, why don’t we speak New Zealandish. 

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Turns out, those questions aren’t so dumb.

And exploring the answers can make us smarter. 

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So I’m on a journey. Not only to discover my own ancestors, but to discover the world they lived in, and how it made our world. I’m Suitauloa Simon Young, and I welcome you to join me.