Take a night off from the television sports and the sitcom reruns. Buy a simple family tree chart at the drug store and start to work on filling in the blanks. The first two or three tiers, the most recent generations, are usually pretty easy because they are filled with people you have known all of your life. Chances are that your partner has never met many of your relatives and vice versa. Take time to describe your family characters to each other. Every family has their oddballs and their black sheep. Enjoy their exploits, knowing that each of us is, at least partially, formed by our own personal histories.