"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

This is one of the most famous opening lines ever written. The author is a man consumed by horror and fascination with families and family life, a man who had 12 children and an intense relationship with his much younger wife, and whose own parents and older brother died when he was quite young.

The book is "Anna Karenina". The author is Leo Tolstoy.

Many of Tolstoy's novels concern families and family life issues. In "The Kreutzer Sonata", a husband murders his wife in a fit of jealous passion.

Tolstoy's family life was far from perfect and yet the profundity of family life consumed him for a lifetime. He asked to be buried near "the green stick", a legendary place his older brother told him about when they were kids.

What about you? Does your Family Tree bear the fruits of pain or perfection? What about the family you