Nobody knows anything. That’s how it felt trying to get my wife’s family tree started. Well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. Some people knew some things. But getting an accurate family tree started takes things like facts, dates, and numbers. Who was where and with whom.

I could get her parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. But beyond that was a mystery.

Turns out in the Philippines, keeping track of family isn’t always a priority.

Conversations were often.

“Who is your grandma’s brothers?”

“I don’t know. There’s five brother over yonder.”

“What’s their names?”

“I don’t know Pepe?”

“Pepe who?”

“We called him tatay Pepe. Don’t know his real name.”

I get it; families are big. Keeping track of 30 plus cousins isn’t easy or fun. Plus, everyone has a nickname in the Philippines. But that makes it just a tick more difficult getting things nailed down on the living. Finding the dead is even worse.

But a funny thing began to happen as we asked questions and family asked family. Names, faces, places all came in.

Soon the tree started filling out. With it came discoveries and family stories. Finally it was coming together.