Family legacy: how to find peace ?

Our family history influences our lives decisively. Our ancestors bequeathed us different legacies that we get "bound up" in, by their repetitiveness: reproduction of life histories, blocks and incomprehensible traumas, obedience to inexplicable prohibition, etc..
How can we understand and manage these problems better, and even solve them, escape "curse" and release ourselves from the most restricting patterns?