Running head: FAMILY GENOGRAM PROJECT1
Couc 601: Family Genogram Project
Syreeta Moody
Liberty University
FAMILY GENOGRAM PROJECT 2
Family Genogram
Analysis of the family genogram for myself starts with my mother and my father’s parents (My
grandparents). My grandparents on both sides are deceased, so much of the information I
gathered came from my mom, aunts, and uncles. Additionally, my older siblings provided
information that I was unaware of also.
Family Dynamics
To get a clearer perspective on how I became the woman I am today, I need to start from
the beginning of everything. This includes family strengths, patterns, and overall health of the
family relationships. My father’s parents William Swann Sr. and Alberta Johnson- Swann were
married at the age of 18 and they remained married for 61 years until my grandfather passed
away in November of 1994. In the later years of their marriage, it was for the most part, a loving
marriage. However, in the early years of their marriage my grandfather was physically abusive to
my grandmother. My grandparents had 4 children, William Swann Jr., Aubrey Swann Sr.(my
father), Barbara Swann, and Laverne Swann. My father and his siblings saw how my
grandfather treated my grandmother and the result from this is that my father and my Uncle
William where abusive in the early years of their marriages also, that ultimately ended in
divorce. The effects on my Aunts were that this is how men were and thus they were subjects of
sexual abuse and low self-esteem. These experiences impacted my grandparents’ children
emotionally and destroyed their mental well-being for a large portion of their lives. When my
siblings and I experienced my grandparents, they were devout Baptist Christians. All I ever knew
Abstract
A family genogram provides an outline in the form of a diagram, that shows the history of the
behavior patterns (as of divorce, abortion, or suicide) of a family over several generations. A
family genogram also provides details of the medical history of a family in order to assess
family members risk of developing disease. This genogram will focus on myself ( Syreeta
Moody), as the index person and will show three generations that will include my grandparents,
my parents, myself, and my siblings. The genogram will show my children, however preceding
generations will be the targeted focus of this paper. My family’s strengths, weaknesses, patterns,
guidelines, and total health of my family will be discussed. The primary focus of my paper will
show how my family has grown and overcome regardless of the weaknesses that will be
discussed. Next, I will give my interpretation of how my family religion has shaped my identity
today. Lastly, I will complete this genogram with personal reflections on areas I need to improve
on as a mother, wife, daughter, and Christian.
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were these people, I believe that God’s redeeming power is what changed this dynamic in my
family, at least as it pertains to my grandparents and their marriage. The road for my father and
his siblings would show more challenges.
My mother parents, Gordon Dumas and Millicent Sessoms- Dumas were married in 1952
and they divorced in 1973. My grandfather was in the military and he was away from home
often. My mother (Maxine Dumas-Swann) gives minimal information regarding my
grandfather’s sexual abuse of her and my aunt (Annette Dumas). From the story my mother told
me, my grandfather began his abuse when my mother was about 8years old and this continued
until he went away on an assignment with the military and never returned. My grandfather sent
divorce papers to my grandmother in the mail. It was only in later years that my mother found
out that my aunt was also being sexually abused by their father, to which they both have lasting
scars to this very day. I only met my mother’s father once when I was a child and she never left
my sister or I alone with him. My siblings and I never knew him and thus we have no bonds with
his side of the family. Even up until his death my mother was estranged from him, he never made
his peace with her or my aunt. After his passing from cancer, family members and his other two
wives have come out to share his sexual abuse of their children.
Family Strengths and Resiliency
When considering my colorful and sordid genogram it is easy to lose sight of the
strengths and resiliency that were present in my family history. However, I would be remiss not
to acknowledge them. The first thing that comes to mind is the strength of my father’s mom to
stay with my grandfather after his physical abuse. I believe she sought God and he heard her cry
and because of her belief that God would heal their marriage, he did just that. My grandmother’s
choice to stay with my grandfather and trust God was a great act of faith and long suffering as
Galatians 5:22-23 explains. I believe in making this choice she made a strong statement for
future generations on seeking God for restoring her marriage instead of taking the easy way out
and divorcing. I’ve always believed that it was a generational cycle that my grandfather learned
and thus my father, however the cycle stopped with his children and my uncle’s children. Neither
my brother, nor my male cousins are physically abusive to their wives. Both my father and my
Uncle became Pastors and surrendered their lives to the lord, just like Paul did when he stopped
killing Christians in the Damascus road experience and served the rest of his life to the body of
Christ in Acts 9. I believe my father and Uncle experienced their own road to Damascus as well.
There is evidence of a strong faith movement in my family. First, father’s parents were
staunch Christians. When parents got together, my father was abusive and unfaithful, he was far
from the man of God he ultimately became all the way until his passing in 2001 from cancer. My
father preached from a chair the Sunday before he passed away. My mother’s upbringing was
very dysfunctional and scaring, however my mother surrendered it all and gave her life to Christ
shortly after my grandmother passed away from cancer in 1996. My mother has been growing
and flourishing in the lord ever since. However, I believe that my mother is still suffering from
some issues in her past that I remain prayerful about, I believe it stems from her father not
making his peace with her before he passed away. I also am not sure if my mother or my aunt
ever told my grandmother. While there were many struggles and trials that caused my
grandparents on my fathers’ side and their children to lose their way, the grace and mercy of God
has made sure that the grandchildren would have a better chance in life.
For example, myself, my siblings, and cousins were all raised up in the church. There were
issues that we all have had, however we were given the tool of God and his word to help us
through the trials and circumstances in our lives. This led to my sister and a few cousins who are
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ministers and myself leading praise and worship in church. I believe that these generations have
learned resilience through their belief system and trust in God. According to Goldenberg and
Goldenberg (2013), resiliency in a family is noted in their “ability to thrive and maintain
relatively stable psychological and physical functioning even under adverse conditions” (p. 7).
This is shown in the lives of my grandparent’s grandchildren, which includes me and my
siblings. My children have in turn lived their lives for Christ and not seen abuse in their home.
Goldenberg and Goldenberg (2013), identify family resiliency in its ability to give “a
consistent and positive belief system that provides shared values and assumptions so as to offer
guidelines for meaning” (p. 9). My family has continued to value their faith and belief in God,
and it has caused generational blessings and fostered wholeness in our family value system.
Family Patterns
Drug use, depression, low self-esteem, anxiety, and cancer are the common themes in my
family’s tree, more so on my father’s side. For the purpose of this paper I’ll address the patterns
prior mentioned. I will use my father’s side, since I really don’t have much information about my
mother’s parent’s family life patterns. From what I’ve been told about my grandmother, my aunts
and from what is true of myself, my siblings, and our children, we all have battled low self-
esteem and depression. Some my siblings and my children suffer from extreme anxiety when
faced with stressors in life. This is a generational pattern, for mostly the woman in my family.
The emotional and mental struggles in my family are directly connected to the drug and alcohol
abuse and sexual promiscuity.
Health of the Family
My family did not have a healthy beginning because my parents were still learning
themselves. My mother was 17 and my father was 21 when they got married. As a teenage
mother myself, I know that my parents were not mentally developed enough to raise me and my
siblings. I was not mentally mature enough to raise my six children either. There was an absence
freedom to explore identity and sibling relationships outside of the dysfunctions of our parents.
My oldest sibling from my fathers first marriage is my closest sibling, we have had to learn how
to do things differently than we were raised because our upbringing left so many scars. In other
words, my siblings and I had not template to help structure us, however the best template we
would later realize to help us have healthy functioning homes, was the word of God. The word of
God is the ultimate teacher and generational curse breaker.
Family Influences on Personal Identity
Observations from the genogram on generations that preceded me, my family of origin,
and my own family has shed a great amount of understanding in why I am who I am today
(Hinson, 2015). There is great wisdom to be gained in looking back at the past. The book of
James in the bible encourages us to ask God for understanding (English Standard Version, Holy
Bible. n.d.). Creating a genogram provided ample opportunity to grow in knowledge of how I
came to believe the things I do about God, myself, and the world around me. These are
identified as my family’s impact on the religion I practice today, my gender development, and
race and culture.
My siblings and I have used the word of God to heal and build a bond of our family. My
siblings and I have started a Marco Polo to uplift, support, and encourage one another. Our
children support, talk to, and spend time together. We have regular family functions. My husband
and I have family meetings with our children to allow them freedom to express themselves and
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be heard. We pray and study the word of God together, and my oldest son graduated from Liberty
University and is preaching now. Again, Gods grace has restored the health of our family.
Religion
The role of religion had a large impact on my family. My grandparents and my father’s
walk with Christ have a huge effect on my belief system today. I am the baby of my siblings, so
much of the bad things that happened within my parents’ marriage I was spared from
experiencing, however from what I have heard, I am thankful to God for first my father’s
salvation and commitment to Christ, then in later years my mother also. Their walk with God
changed the lives of myself and my siblings. It is only God’s amazing grace that gave them the
power to overcome issues and for my dad to stop the cycle of abuse that began with my father’s
father.
Conclusion
Truthfully, every part of my genogram discussed has shaped the person I am today. I have
a greater respect for my faith in Christ and the strength of my grandparents and parents that I
wasn’t aware of before doing this project. This project has helped my see and appreciate the
fundamental nature of who I am and why that makes me distinctive from anyone else. I can now
use this to see the differences from the origination of my family and what it is today. I’m blessed
for what I have learned from my family in the good and bad perspective because I believe it has
ultimately helped me be the best version of myself, I can be. I know myself the best and I am
challenged to be a better mother, wife, daughter, and Christian I can be.
My children are my world and the relationship I have with them means the world to me. I
have made a conscious effort to seek God for guidance to make sure I am providing my children
with what they need from their mother when they seek me out for advice , support, and guidance.
My husband and the bond we share is truly invaluable to me. I believe my husband is
who God had me for and I have grown so much in letting go of my complexes from my
childhood and being fearful of divorce and I truly allow God to give me peace and trust that he
knows what best for myself and my husband. I seek God in everything going on with us.
My mother and I have become much closer since she gave her life to Christ. I still need to
learn how to seek God when my mother attempts to impose her old school way of doing things
as oppose to the way God has directed me to do things. We clash sometimes. I’m learning to
respectfully disagree and squash whatever the disagreement is.
As a Christian, I need to remember that I am the model that God is using to represent his
body and his kingdom, those are big shoes to fill, however the alternative is something I
personally cannot accept for myself or my family. Ultimately the love of God conquers all and it
is, that I will operate in all aspects of my life.
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References
Goldenberg, I., Stanton, M., & Goldenberg, H. (2017). Family therapy: An overview.
Holy Bible. English Standard Version.
