Memory/Learning ... Theory

Spiders spinning and monarchs migrating ...

I've been thinking about memory doings. Not just my memories or the moments I remember from my life, but also the inclinations which seem to have some sort of ancestral dictates ... predisposition.

This has been a favorite topic for a long time. Memories are biological/chemical, and I think may have a spiritual element as well along with the physiology and genetic contributions.
I wonder how and why we remember. Not the how and why that equals learning, but the mechanics of memory acquisition and transfer is what I'm interested in. Scientist have written quite a bit on instinct ... and there are rare cases of people born with out what I think of as basic instincts (basic instinct = babies supposedly won't crawl off of a countertop ... But mothers are unwilling to test it!)

I wonder if humans are likely to somehow hold faint memories ... not of the actual event, but of the lesson learned by previous people in their bloodline. The Bible makes a big deal of the lineage of Christ. Why did that matter? Did it establish him as an historical figure? Cultural memory is important to Jewish people. I barely know my own ancestory. Daddy's family was primarily Welsh. Celtic music resonates more deeply then old Africa spiritual music ... is that coincidental? Momma's family was Scot/Irish and American Indian. My husband's folks are from England. I wonder how much of who you came from effects how you are. Not just what they teach you or how you are socialized, but the genetic contributions that go deeper then physical characteristics. I can look at pictures of dark welsh women and see my features. I never knew my paternal grandmother, but my dad said our personalities were eerily similar. Sadly, none of her children were able to share memories about her ... I've seen only one photo of her. She looked happy. Now, none of her children are living and none of her grandchildren knew her. I'm not at all sad about that, I'm thinking only about a continuation of traits which weren't specifically learned. I have recently seen a very old photo of my husband's grandparents and their brood of children, his father was a babe in arms, so the photo must be from the 1910s. I was absolutely shocked to see the personality of my husband emanating from the patriarch.
Well, it's just a curiosity.