‘We must tell our children about our ancestors': genealogy festival in Kazan

“The beginning of the teaching dynasty is connected with ABC”

Participants from all over the republic gathered for the genealogy festival. Gulsaria Kashapova came to the festival from Menzelinsk with two family trees at once: one from her father’s side, the other from her mother’s. Together with her relatives, the lady was able to collect information about her ancestors in the 10^th and 12^th generations.

“We have a lot of teachers in our family on my mother’s side — the total teaching experience is more than 800 years. The beginning of the dynasty of teachers in our family is connected with Tatar ABC. There was a woman named Maryam among the people who compiled the first alphabet in the Tatar language, she turned out to be a relative of our mother’s grandfather,” says Gulsaria Kashapova. “All my grandfathers on my father’s side took part in battles of the Great Patriotic War and, fortunately, they all returned alive. As far as we know, our ancestors came to our region from Sol-Iletsk and settled in the village of Sarsaz; they even say that they are the founders of this village.”

Gulsaria herself works as a math teacher at school at school. The woman began compiling a family tree back in 2007, and this research work is still ongoing. Interestingly, her family members have not yet reached the archives; all this time they have been collecting information on relatives looking for documentary evidence and photos of the house.

“This stage of work in the archives is to still ahead.” So far, we have collected information only from living sources, that is, through our loved ones, through the memories of our grandparents, for example, our grandfather has a diary that helped us a lot in our search,” she noted.

Gulsaria Kashapova even wrote a children's book based on real events, with stories about her ancestors to interest children. I made the illustrations myself, and the woman’s mother wrote the fairy tale.

“I believe that drawing up a family tree is very important for every family. Every family must have a family tree. There is no future without the past. Our children must know about this too. In addition, if our children know their relatives, this will be support for them in life in the future,” Gulsaria Kashapova emphasised.

“Nowadays it’s very popular to make family trees”

Ildar Vafin and Albina Vafina came to the family festival with their daughter and son. They live in Kazan, and come from Alki District in Tatarstan and Vyatskiye Polyany District in Kirov region.

“We have not yet undertaken a deep study of our family, but there is a lot of interest. Now we know only three generations of our ancestors. We know that our grandfathers took part in the Great Patriotic War, and we are very proud of them. In the future, we definitely plan to study our entire family tree. We should tell our children about our ancestors, the couple believes.

As a historian Rashid Amishev is closely involved in family tree making. Now, upon request, he is writing memoirs about the history of families who not only create their own family tree but also want to immortalise all the information received in a book, which includes the family tree itself, documents and photos.

“Nowadays it is very popular to create family trees and find out more about your ancestors. This is something that remains for centuries. In addition to the spiritual component, there are also practical benefits from studying the history of your family. People can find out what chronic diseases their relatives had and subsequently take preventive measures,” he noted.

The historian also studied the history of his own family:

“I must say that after that I started to respect my family members even more. I found out what kind of family we are from. On both sides, we have religious leaders and intelligentsia. On my father’s side, the grandfathers were respected murzas, on my mother’s side there were also religious figures and doctors.

“Through such holidays and, in general, through the revival of their ancestry, each family makes its contribution to preserving the heritage of the entire people. Every person should know his roots and pass this knowledge on to his children,” concluded Rashid Amishev.

“I know my grandfathers to Minnekhan”

Famous Tatar singers Salavat Minnekhanov and Guzalem believe that the connection between past and present generations is of particular importance for the family.

“Today there is every opportunity to create your own family tree; there are even special organisations that do this. Our family has Uncle Zufar who is very interested in this and collects information about our ancestors. I myself know my grandfathers to Minnekhan. I know that he lived not far from Kazan, he was a simple peasant. Then he moved towards Yutazy,” said Salavat Minnekhanov.

As Guzalem admitted, she began to think about creating a family tree only recently.

“I know that there is even a special government programme with the help of which a family tree is created for you. For example, my mother used it. In general, there comes an understanding that creating a family tree, studying generations and, most importantly, explaining all this to your children is of great value,” says Guzalem.

Guests of the holiday got acquainted with Tatar dynasties and family traditions. As the organisers said, the main goal of the festival is to revive and preserve family traditions, which form an understanding of the role of family and clan, their significance and uniqueness. A halal market, master classes for children and adults, a sports and patriotic education zone, and a food court were opened on Kayum Nasyri Street as part of Family Tree Festival.