Saturday, September 23, 2006

Genealogy Obsession
Current mood: contemplative


My sister and I are totally obsessed with our family tree. This is a project that we have been working on sporadically for a couple of years. It has been a major journey and we have been very surprised by our findings. There have been a couple of nights (when Julie has been in Montana) that we have stayed up all night and worked on this stuff. A bonding experience - yes. A detective story - yes. Information that could shake things up a bit - oh yeah!

As children, my sister Julie and I were always interested in our family roots. We lived out our whole lives in Montana - 2000 miles from any of our relatives - and we both felt disconnected from them. I admit that while I know some of them, I know none of them really well (a thing I plan to rememdy) Some of them I have never even met. Some of them were not worth meeting.

The whole thing seems so strange to me. How did my parents become so distant from their brothers and sisters? I can not imagine not being in almost constant contact with all of my siblings - and I have four of them plus one totally awesome brother in law! Whenever Julie and I asked about our heritage we got one of two answers: "I don't know" or "We are Irish, Dutch and Cherokee". My reaction was always, ".......and?" What good did that do me? None. So Julie and I decided to go to work on our family story.

We started out using online databases and were pleasantly surprised to find that some of the work had already been done. Upon further study, we discovered some discrepencies and so I consulted a professional genalogist. After confirming that we were on the right track, we began leaving messages on message boards asking for info and found out a lot. We even met a distant cousin, who is a really nice lady from Oklahoma and as obsessed with this process and Julie and I are. We have completed all of the easy stuff. We have a couple of 'mystery' great grandfathers that we are still trying to locate. That is part of the fun. Digging around. Reading all kinds of stories. It is a journey of discovery almost every time we sit down to work on this project. It really is fun and surprising!

In the process we have discovered that we are in fact Irish, and English and Scottish and that a large portion of our family came here from Europe from England in the middle 1600s to North Carolina, Virginia and Georgia. I was surprised to find our Scottish roots. You that know me know that I cannot wait to go to Scotland again and I would live there if I could talk my husband into it. I love it there. I have not visted Ireland yet, but plan to on my next trip to the UK in 2008. I am looking forward to seeing Ireland. I have not found any Native American (Cherokee) connections yet. Still working on that. I would not be shocked to find that my ancestor who looks so 'Native American' is in fact a 'black German' - or a dark skinned German - and not Cherokee at all. A notion that the descendants of that relative are very opposed to.

I was very surprised to find some fairly strong German ancestry. I had no idea of this. I am married to a German - on his father's side he is only a 3rd generation American - whereas my family on both sides has been in America for hundreds of years. The German culture and traditions are something I plan to research and incorporate into the lives of my children. Why? Well, that is the whole point of doing any of this. America is a melting pot of all different kinds of people. We have all brought 'old country' traditions to America and adopted them as our own. Solid roots are what give you identity. Identity is what gives you tradition. Tradition is what gives you a sense of connectedness. This is totally coming from the Celtic/Gaelic part of me and I know it. As a matter of fact, I embrace it! I want my children to know where they came from and to be proud and educated about all the different people it took to make America. Our family is a classic American family, with lots of different backgrounds. I want my kids and nieces to know that and relish in the fact that they are woven into the American family and be proud of that fact.

I am a History buff and genealogy geek. Proud of it! I am fascinated with the story of my family - which contains all kinds of stories both sordid and celebratory. My family is not a picture perfect family - there are murders and thieves, lawyers and minsters. That is what is so great! It is interesting and colorful and I am grateful that my sister and I embarked upon this journey - which is FAR from over.