The Family Theme
It may not have occurred to you but your family lineage may have some type of theme over the decades. Example: your ancestors may have moved every generation to a new frontier area trying to better their life style. Those of course can be the hardest family tree group to trace and keep track of where they lived.
Then the family theme of those who stayed put – never moved from the family homeland, even those who never moved or left Europe. With that theme are those who once settled in America, such as Massachusetts, always lived there and didn’t move anywhere else over the generations. Those are some of the easier family lines to trace. 
A different type of them would be those who went from being very poor to improving their economic station in life. That could have happened in one generation or a couple, but a clear path is seen in the fortunes of the family line. That works in reverse, where a family went from wealthy to very poor.
Another theme is faith driven. Where for generations, there is an unmistakable line of families choosing their home and lifestyle based on their faith. They remained very religious and true to their religion over the decades. 
Next would be those free-spirits, who didn’t follow what was expected in their hometown or village, always being different and daring. A good description would be self-reliant. Those could be the ones who also joined the circus and traveled the world.
As is seen even if one didn’t know their grandparents or great grandparents, an individual can have many of the characteristics of that ancestor in their personality, not just in their physical appearance.
These themes and many others are part of the reason genealogy is done, it helps explain how and why one is where they are now, how did it happen. 
Examine your family lineage … is there a theme?
Related FamilyTree.com Blogs:
Two Hundred Years of Immigration
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