I have always believed that where a person came from is not nearly so important as where they are going. We can’t change our heritage, after all, but we can change our direction for the future, which is a beautiful thing.
At the same time, God Himself put great emphasis upon heritage. The Bible is chock full of genealogies — family trees to remind the Jews where they came from and to whom they belonged. He knew a person’s ancestry told them certain things about themselves, be it good or bad, and that the knowledge had a grounding effect.
Being aware of our heritage does nothing to change who we really are, but it can give us a better sense of who we are, and perhaps help us better determine our direction for the future.
I think my fascination with my own family tree stems mostly from my love of history. If I can find some way to connect myself to historical events that I love reading and learning about, it makes it all the more real to me. And I haven’t been disappointed, particularly where American history is concerned!
I was fortunate enough to have a friend with the connections to do some of the hardest work for me. Now I’m merely building upon what she began, but so far I’ve found multiple ancestors who fought as part of early American militia groups, in the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and both sides of the Civil War. It was fascinating to discover that I had not one, but two ancestors at the Battle of Kings Mountain, right at the time my daughter was studying the Revolutionary War battle in our homeschool.
With the exception of my maiden name, where the trail of information seems to dead-end pretty quickly in Italy, most of my family line on both sides can be traced back for a considerable distance on American soil. Watching their migration from the east coast, mainly from the southern colonies of Virginia and the Carolinas, into Kentucky and beyond, is a lesson in American history and western expansion all on its own. I have ancestors among some of the earliest colonists of America, but also among the earliest settlers of Kentucky.
I’ve really just begun this search, so I’m sure to discover more, but I’ve tied my mother’s side to John Rolfe and Pocahontas, and also learned I share an ancestor with two American presidents. Though my focus so far has been on my line going back only about six generations, I know some parts of my family can be traced back much, much further. I have more study to do here, but I can trace my father’s side to the English nobility and apparently have a knighted ancestor who died in Jerusalem on one of the Crusades.
How does a history-lover not get a little giddy over discoveries like that?
And I’m hoping this is the just the beginning of the fascinating things I learn as I explore my family tree.
