Can we talk?

searcgubg thru history

        I've been told that genealogy is one of the fastest growing hobbies in America. I suppose it's the feeling of rootlessness, and being disconnected from current family that must have spurred it on. Of course, some people are searching to find blue bloods or heroes. I started mine knowing that if I shook the family tree, a lot of nuts would fall out.

        My dad told me I wouldn't find anyone claiming an ancestor who went to jail or committed war crimes. It's true I have not found much scandal. I did find one just the other day, go back about 500 years to one who had land in feudal Scotland and late in life had a title. He was known as "the Crooked" long before he was "duc". You don't know if it was because he was crippled or a cheat.

        But I have found myself getting curious about geography and history. Why didn't I pay attention in school? I know we covered all this, but I didn't have a reason to care. I've spent the afternoon reading about Celts, Gauls, Saxons, Bretons, Ordadians, Danes, and Franks. I've been studying maps of France, and not the first time. But I now know by heart where Brittany and Normandy are.

        In the last six months that I have pursued this, I have found it necessary to know about the Channel Islands, the Palatinate in Germany, southern Scotland, Artois in France and Switzerland. I have studied William the Conqueror and Thor the Tall (he might actually be in the tree, but I'm afraid to trust some of the material). My ancestors, like most people's, moved constantly to avoid war, racial and religious persecution. When they reached the end of the rope after centuries, and populations increased, they left everything to come to the colonized territory across the Atlantic.

        I've learned how the counties were re-aligned and renamed. I learned about the census and how the info has changed over the decades. I had to relearn about Bacon's Rebellion and the settlement of this country. For instance, so many Germans settled in Pennsylvania because the government was lax. One of my grandfathers came here from Germany because of persecution by the Catholic Church. He was a minister, but after spending time with William Penn, he changed denominations.

          The point of this long story is that history means so much more when you see how it affects you, how you came to be in this part of the world. This is your heritage. People with your DNA did all these great heroic things, but they only saw it as survival. I think if children knew more about their roots, the classroom wouldn't be so boring when it's time to study where your ancestors lived, or what kind of lives they must have had. A twelve year old can read about the Civil War, but when he knows his grandfather's grandfather's grandfather died as a young man in that war and never saw his kids again, it suddenly has meaning. Or when the teacher talks about Serbs and Croatians, it sounds really silly; but then he remembers his ancestors went through that same horror in Europe depending on the ruler and the last invaders. Normans and Saxons fought each other; Normans chased Celts out of Britain into Scotland and Ireland. Sadly, we realize the world hasn't changed in all these centuries.

          Genealogy is a good way to personalize history and make it memorable.