Can we talk?

Who Do You Think You Are?

    The new show on NBC on Friday night asks a really good question: who DO you think you are? I watched as the first celebrity went on a journey to find her mother's roots. It covered the country from Massachusetts to California and involved some big events, like the gold rush, and the witch hunts.

    As I listened to Sarah Jessica Parker talk about how she could suddenly identify with these things she studied in school, I nodded my head, knowing that those discoveries do make a connection. Finding out your forefather came here to escape a brutal feudal lord, or to practice religious freedom opens your eyes. Knowing your ancestors played a part in The Civil War or the Lewis and Clark Expedition make those things come alive for you.

    I've been searching for a year. I have discovered a number of my ancestors were Germans settling in Pennsylvania, whether Lutheran, Mennonite, or Brethren, trying to escape an oppressive Catholic church in the Palatinate. One family line I traced back to two Scottish kings, but as my brother pointed out, when you go back over 10 generations, almost everyone has a king of some kind in the family tree. One ancestor was killed in Bacon's Rebellion, and one may have been an illegitimate Irish son of a Scottish gentleman. Several of my multiple great uncles were quite learned and respected, but my direct line has been unremarkable in that sense. And then there's that family line of alcoholics. Still I have learned a lot about history just looking up these simple folk.

    History is not just some grand scheme apart from everyday life. It's not orchestrated by generals or even world leaders, at least not completely. It's made of normal people: homemakers, shoemakers, schoolmasters, foot soldiers, preachers, farmers, merchants, drummer boys, and flag bearers. History is made by the people that politicians want to label as little, inconsequential, unintelligent, or as simply the masses. When we search for our own families, we discover the people who make history. Their lives give us the details of the big picture we learned in school.

    Family ancestry may be just a new fad, but it seems like a healthy one. It encourages ownership of our country or our state or county. It gives us pride in who we are and the price that was paid to get here. History becomes real through our ancestors and no longer some arbitrary "stuff". It makes us want to right some wrongs and make sure the bad things never happen again.