THIS summer I made it to my first McErlean family reunion. There have been four so far. In 1990, 2000, 2007 and then this August for an amazing week of events and activities including cycles, Seamus Heaney tours, golf, a quiz, various musical events, sports days and a battle re-enactment - we were mercenaries in the past who preferred to fight with little or no clothes on and well greased-up too - so that we could slip through the fingers of our enemies.
It was an incredible week with family from all over Ireland, Australia, America, Britain and various parts of Europe coming back to our homeland of Clady in Co Derry.
While we're pretty sure we can trace ourselves back to the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, we very have reliable records for 10 generations and one of the highlights for me was seeing my direct ancestor Teague McErlean's grave in the churchyard of Tamlaght O'Crilly, a hamlet in south Derry I'd never heard of before.
Teague died in 1790 and the reunion is an amalgam of the two families that were born of his great grandson's two sons, Thaddeus and Henry. Thaddeus or 'Teady' was based in Clady and his brother Henry (my grandfather) came to Belfast at the turn of the last century. It is thanks to Teady, who died in 1953, that we have such an accurate and detailed history because he wrote it all down and then his grandson Thomas, an archaeologist at the University of Ulster, took it further and has retold it in a brilliantly compelling way for the new generation.
While the history throws up some incredible stories of characters, battles and paddle steamers on the Mississippi, a recurring theme the whole way through is business. Some readers will know well of the 'Clady' McErleans (I get called a 'Belfast' McErlean) and the many businesses that were and are run from there.
Other readers from Belfast, particularly west Belfast, will know of McErlean's Bakery and the Glenowen Inn on the Glen Road.
The Glenowen is on the site of the former family home where the bakery was started in the cellar and where my father helped out after primary school in the 1930s.
When Henry died before his time in 1941, his eldest son Thaddeus was only 18 and the responsibility was thrust on him to carry the business on. His younger brother, Paul, my father, became a baker and my uncle Deus (or 'Big Dessie' as he was known) set out on a journey that created a well known pub and a very significant baking factory at Arizona Street which in turn supplied McErlean's shops all over north and west Belfast.
Bill Clinton even bought his soda farls and potato bread from the Falls Road shop on his first historic presidential visit in 1995.
Deus' brother John had a pharmacy on the Falls Road too and just to add, his eldest sister Margaret was a bit of a legend on the Falls also, better known to generations of St Dominic's girls as Sister Bruno.
In Clady, Henry's brother Teady was growing the businesses also - the shop, the post office, the pub, general trading, a shirt factory and other ventures. There wasn't much the family wasn't in. And of course Henry and Teady were breeding too. Henry had seven children and Teady had twelve. That makes for an awful lot of cousins now as you can imagine.
But to get back to the business theme, these days the world of work is awash with how-to guides and biographies of successful business people and how they made their start. I'm trying to read one of Richard Branson's books at the moment.
At the reunion this summer, probably because I'd managed to miss all the previous ones, I became much more aware of our family's association with business and the many highs and lows it brings.
And I have asked myself the question if that legacy and history of business in our family has had any role in the decisions I've made about going into business. I've just co-backed a new venture for instance, a company called Victa Sport, did the spirit of Henry or Teady have any role in that?
One thing's for sure, my father's justly proud of the family's business legacy, particularly his older brother Deus' entrepreneurship and strength of character through difficult times.
But I have to say, I don't think it made much difference to the decisions I've made. Maybe subconsciously it gave me confidence and it was a brilliant experience for me to work as the 'gravy ring' boy in the bakery for summers when I was at school so, work and the culture of business has been part of my life since an early age.
But the whole question of whether business people are born not bred (no pun intended) is one that has occurred to me more and more over these last few weeks.
And I suppose my view of it is pretty simple. There might be a legacy from where or who you're born to, or not, but it doesn't and shouldn't dictate your future in business. That's for us all to shape and grow for ourselves.
That might sound a bit corny and unsophisticated but thousands of business books have been written saying that or something similar.
All I had to do was enjoy the company of my extended family in Clady and beyond and see it again it for myself.
* Paul McErlean (paul@ mcepublicrelations.com) is managing director of MCE Public Relations.
* Next week: Jamie Delargy
* WEE BUNS: The McErlean family had a very significant baking factory at Arizona Street which in turn supplied McErlean's shops all over north and west Belfast