Genealogy Quotations

What can they see in the longest kingly line in Europe, save that it runs back to a successful soldier?
(Sir Walter Scott, Scottish writer)

Nothing is so soothing to our self-esteem as to find our bad traits in our forebears. It seems to absolve us.
(Van Wyck Brooks, US critic)

Having children is hereditary. Chances are that if your parents didn’t have any children, you won’t either.
(Anon.)

The great advantage of living in a large family is that early lesson of life's essential unfairness.
(Nancy Mitford, English writer)

Family is just accident. They don't mean to get on your nerves. They don't even mean to be your family. They just are.
(Marsha Norman, US writer)

The grandson wants to remember what the father wished to forget.
(Anon.)

What the next generation will value most is not what we owned, but the evidence of who we were and the tales of how we loved. In the end, it's the family stories that are worth the storage.
(Ellen Goodman, US journalist)