Have you had dreams related to your ancestors?
I have. They were unusual enough to know they were important. The most important ones were repeated throughout the night until I had them memorized.
I believe dreams can be a valid way to receive valuable information. Dreams may feel more significant when an ancestor delivers the message. Why an ancestor? Because they care about us, I believe.
Years ago, I read a series of books by Henry “Hank” Z. Jones called Psychic Roots: Serendipity and Intuition in Genealogy. I loved those books full of individual’s stories because if you’ve done genealogy long enough, you know weird and unexplainable events can happen that help you find your ancestors—as if they want to be found. Mr. Jones would sometimes share stories of someone who’d had a dream that helped him/her get past a brick wall in research.
Ancestors may also come in dreams to comfort us with hard trials. Many cultures look to their ancestors for answers. Native Americans and Africans regard dreams as sacred if an ancestor visits during the dream.
When researching my family, I once reached out to a woman who was distantly related but a stranger to me. We visited on the phone about a common ancestor who in her loneliness as a child came to her in dreams to console her. She told the stories in such a reverent and respectful manner that I couldn’t help but believe her.
I’ve read stories of loved ones having passed away but then came to a family member who grieved their loss and were comforted during a dream. The deceased can give healing and help with processing tough experiences and perhaps give a gift of hope.
Some people believe dreams can be revelatory—maybe offering us information we’ll need in the future. Which makes me think of Biblical stories like Pharoah’s dreams that needed to be interpreted by Joseph, or Pilate’s wife’s dream about Jesus’ innocence. Regular people (not just “righteous” people like Joseph who was told in a dream to flee to Egypt to keep Jesus safe) can receive important messages through dreams.
Ancestral dreams can be given to those with spiritual gifts, but also to those who don’t have such endowments.
I know there are those who are skeptic about such things, but I’ll go on record as saying I believe dreams can be a source of comfort and help. Call me crazy if you’d like. It’s hard to prove “spiritual” experiences regarding the love a dead person might have for me, nor do I want to try to prove anything. You either believe or you don’t, I suppose.
Why I’m writing about this today is because last week I gave a presentation to a group of people who wanted encouragement with searching their family trees. At the end of my sharing some personal stories, I asked the audience if they had any questions. A woman asked if I’d ever had a dream that fed me information about an ancestor. I’ve had several, but the one I shared that night happened about fifteen years ago. I was in the thick of researching my Mattocks family of North Carolina and I kept finding clues that they were from Maryland originally, but no substantial records could be found to link my family to the Maryland Mattocks’s.
One night, I had a dream throughout the entire night. It repeated itself over and over again—the exact same dream. In the dream I was looking out at a swath of land, and I was told by an unseen person how important the land was to him. The importance of the land was drummed into my head as was this view of the land. When I awoke, I knew the dream was important, so I started delving into land records. I didn’t find anything of great value but never forgot the dream. Fast forward three years later, I was in the countryside of Somerset County, Maryland where I suspected my ancestors were from. I had rented a car and drove out to an old house to question the owners if they knew if a Mattocks had built their home, or if they knew of any old Mattocks cemeteries in the vicinity.
When I pulled up to the house a very vicious dog on a chain barked and snarled nonstop, pulling at his chain, and guarding the front porch and door. I suspected that if I got out of the car, he would attack me. Consequently, I didn’t get out of the car. Instead, I waited to see if anyone would come out of the house and quiet the dog and then visit with me. No one did, so I turned the car around to leave. Exiting the dirt driveway, there in front of me was the land I was shown in the dream over and over again. I suddenly understood that not only was I on the “important” land that was once my ancestors, but also that I was shown it so many times throughout the night so that I would recognize it three years later.
I still can’t document that my North Carolina ancestors connect to the Maryland Mattocks family, but I know they do.
Through my study, and people sharing their stories with me, and through my own dreams, this following list is what I believe ancestors can do for us in dreams:
- Help us make important decisions
- Help with finding our relatives
- Teach us of our past
- Give a new perspective we hadn’t thought of
- Prepare us for something that is to come
- In a humble way, teach us a lesson that will benefit our lives
- Give peace of mind, hope, and healing
If you have an important dream, may I give advice to write the dream down as soon as you awaken. There are details you may lose during the day or weeks or months. When preparing for this post, I read a 2015 dream I’d written down immediately. I’d forgotten so many of the details and was glad I’d recorded them.
I honestly believe dreams that include an ancestor are meant to bless us and possibly other family members. So to you I say, Sweet Dreams!
