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Use Historical Context Rather than Judgment of Ancestors

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How often in the course of your family history and military research and ancestral healing have you encountered information or beliefs or written words that offended you? Shocked or triggered you in some way? Made you react strongly which led to an immense amount of judgment on who your family member was? Invited negative energies like shame, guilt, and fear into your reality? Perhaps this judgment even made you question who you are as a result of being part of this family?

What did you do with all of these emotions, triggers, and new knowledge about your ancestors? Did you hide the information away, shoving it back into the darkness? Did you bring it to the light and share with family to better understand a belief or experience you discovered?

When we shove things back into the darkness and pretend they didn’t happen or no one else knows, those things fester. The beliefs, behaviors, patterns, and perhaps traumas rise in a new way later. When they do rise, it will be more dramatic because until we process, integrate and release the past, it will continue to show up to teach us something.

Use Historical Context to Understand the Past

In the world of historical, military, and genealogical research, we talk a lot about looking at our family or events through the historical lens. Learning what life, beliefs, behaviors, expectations, and experiences were like at the time they lived.

Each time period had varying beliefs, taboos, norms, religious ideas, political ideas, and other things that shaped who each person became and how they lived. It’s vital we know and understand this rather than judge our ancestors based on the beliefs, behaviors, ideologies, religious and political norms of today. So where do we begin to understand? Let’s look at an example from the late 1940s after World War II had ended.

Some Context

The following clips of a letter came from a woman whose husband was a high ranking Army Officer during WWII. He served in the Philippines and became a Japanese Prisoner of War. He died during his military service. This letter was one of many from his wife in his Individual Deceased Personnel File (IDPF). Pay attention to the second image in particular. How does it make you feel reading this?

Roadmap for Research

 The first questions I had after reading this was, what was this woman’s upbringing like? What were her religious beliefs? What were the beliefs about other ethnicities at this time? What propaganda had been spread about those living in the Philippine Islands?

I also wondered, although I will never know, What was her experience of the people of the Philippine Islands when she visited her husband?

A brief bit of research on this woman showed me where she was born, Oklahoma, which may have influenced some of her religious beliefs in that her religion and beliefs were the “right and best” and any others were not.

I also learned she married her husband when she was only 16. He was at least 5-10 years older than she depending on his true birthdate. Allegedly he lied about his age to enlist in WWI. He was born and raised on the East Coast and had a different upbringing. How much did his beliefs affect and shape hers at such a young age?

She grew into womanhood as the wife of a military man who quickly became an officer and lived his life in the Army. How did the Army and the propaganda shape who they became and what they believed?

Rather than pass judgment immediately on her or your ancestors – do some research to understand the WHY.

Then…..

Ask yourself why you react strongly to what you learn.

If you reacted strongly to this woman’s words – why? If you react strongly to something you learned about your ancestor – why?

As each of us raises our consciousness and rises above the programming of beliefs, behaviors, values, religion, politics, education, sex and marriage, roles of men and women, and all the other programs we have had drilled into us, we have to keep asking WHY. We will know to ask that question because we are triggered in some way or have a strong emotional reaction to what we hear or learn. This means there is something within us and our lineage to explore and release.

When we can even slightly understand the why, we can integrate and release the programming, the emotions, the beliefs and behaviors, and sometimes traumas like this woman endured, and heal. We heal ourselves and our ancestral lineage. We even heal our descendants. We change the world.

Are you ready to change the world?

What Will You Discover Through Research?

Are you curious about what you might find out about your WWI or WWII service members? What you might discover about your family through the genealogy and military records? If so, let’s start a project today.

Book a private session or free research consult, many options available based on your needs, and let me help you explore what’s hidden in your family tree, start a military research project, create your family tree or write your story.

© 2023 WWII Research & Writing Center

Does Historical Context Matter Anymore?

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This year has been a roller coaster of emotions and events. With a lot of incorrect information pushed to the masses to keep them asleep, in fear, and not questioning. In some ways, the world has reverted back to the atmosphere of WWII where they ratted on their neighbors and lived in fear because the propaganda at the time was pushed on them to have one point of view. If that point of view was questioned, then the consequences could have been deadly.

On the flip side of this coin we are also seeing a lot of hidden information about people, the past, and events, come to light. As this happens, we are each being called to process it, witness what took place, acknowledge the unintegrated trauma that is contained in our bodies and energy systems, and heal. I have been doing a lot of this since March and honestly, it has changed some of my feelings about the World Wars, the sacrifices made, especially by my those who were killed who have called out to me, and this work I do. It has taken months to integrate some of what I’ve learned and come to a place of personal peace. I thought I understood the historical context of it all, but I discovered there was more to the story that had been kept from the world.

Historical Context & Trauma

As I dive deeper into healing work and trauma work with my military research clients and writing groups, I am aware of the unintegrated trauma that lives within each of them. I also see how they are willing to explore the historical context of the past. In fact, this month I spent the Office Hours for my writing groups doing facilitation on energy and trauma healing. Individually, and as a group, they had reached a point in research and writing that was pushing them beyond the boundaries of where they had been and were being pushed to go deeper. To allow the emotions to surface. To start questioning even more than they had prior. To do the deeper healing work.

I have also observed how many 20-somethings and kids still in school are viewing the world and history. In speaking with one of my kids and observing posts by younger people on social media – it is clear that the concept of historical context has not been taught in school. If it has, then it was a 5 minute discussion. The majority of young people today are offended by anything that doesn’t fit within the narrow view of life they’ve been programmed to believe is real. They believe books and movies and music should be banned because it’s deemed racist – even if it was written decades ago. And they view history through their eyes today – if an event or concept doesn’t fit into what they’ve been programmed and manipulated into believing then it must be a lie or couldn’t have happened or shouldn’t exist. I have to ask, Does Historical Context Matter Anymore?

Ignoring the context of the past does not help heal the past or heal each of us individually. It only prolongs the suffering and pain and slows the change that could take place on the planet and in our lives.

Do We Need Historical Context?

I feel strongly we need to be teaching historical context to every person on the planet. We need to understand why it is important to witness the past through the eyes, rules, laws, culture, society, religion, and education of those times. The world functioned differently then. Values were different. Events took place that had dramatic impact on creating mass trauma for the collective, especially through the two World Wars. And after the war, people were encouraged to forget, shove it away, don’t talk about it. Definitely do not question anything that took place.

We need to be able to drop in and observe what took place in the past without attaching to it. Sometimes that is easier said than done. I spent many years crying, moving through deep emotions and personal trauma that surfaced from my life and from my ancestral lineage, and healing what was there. It was not an easy or fast process and as healing is a spiral, we are never done.

Trauma and healing are also an embodied process, meaning we need to be in our bodies and paying attention to what is happening inside. Through witnessing and observing where in our bodies we feel the pain or numbness or hyperarousal, we can begin to work with it and heal the trauma that resides within. Are we responding or reacting to what is happening outside us in the world or this new information we receive? The answer to that question shows us where we are functioning from in that moment – pain or healing.

We also need to teach historical context in the present and encourage people to look at what truly IS in this moment. Ask….

  • Why do we have this pain or suffering or trauma being created right now?
  • How have I as an individual contributed to the creation of this trauma?
  • How can I as an individual help heal this trauma?

Healing with Historical Context

It has been a blessing for me the last several years, to be of service to clients who requested trauma and grief healing through the military research projects we have done together. One of the biggest factors to start the healing process or identify why a client was feeling a certain way, was to first look at the historical context of what took place that is creating the reaction in the client.

As an example, I had a client who became angry and upset when he read the research report and files because his father was given rights to his oldest brother’s remains and personal effects during World War II.

My first step was to explain the historical context. As the father/male head of the family, he had legal right as next of kin to make those decisions and receive the effects. This explanation opened space for the client to better understand why this took place.

My next step was to learn more about the client’s family and early life during and after the war to identify any other issues that may have created such a strong reaction. I learned quite a lot that gave me context.

Then we were able to do some facilitation and began to clear away old beliefs and feelings that were keeping the client stuck in a pattern of anger over the past. One of the gifts I have is to help clear out old energetic patterns and trauma, to help people heal. One step at a time. However, it began with historical context.

So what do you think? Do we need historical context any more? Should we be teaching this in schools? Should parents step up and take a more active role in planting seeds with their kids about context?

If you would like to work with me to explore and heal your family’s ancestral trauma, grief, and loss, please check out my facilitation packages and details. You can also email me to ask questions.

© 2020 WWII Research & Writing Center