Diving into the Gene Pool

 

 It is 1976, and the country is alive with the Spirit of '76 celebrations and road trips to commemorate the founding fathers and the birth of our country. Conestoga wagon rides, log cabin tours and battle reenactments are on the average American family summer agenda. Imagine that you are six years old, and your mysterious Great Aunt Viv who you have only ever seen in ancient photographs suddenly pops into your life and whisks you, your mom, your toddler sister and your grandmother away on a month long trip in search of ancestors that stare out at you from paintings in libraries and towering statues.  You hear whispers of governors, senators, judges and revolutionary wars, founders of colleges for GIRLS (you are all about girl power!), and you get to ride a train.  Did I mention that you get to miss a month of school?  Well, you do---and you think it is cool.  So cool.
     This was my introduction to genealogy, and the coolness for me has never worn thin, although the amount of time I spent engaged in it or thinking about it has varied with my age and circumstances. The hardest thing for me to come to terms with over the years has been taking the bad with the good.  Yes, there were successful politicians in my mother's background, but there were also slaveholders and the legendary family ties to Andrew Jackson-- the President who led the Trail of Tears tragedy.  Over the years, I have been alternately proud and heart-broken over the decisions that my ancestors made---their successes were fantastic, but alternatively so were the tragic decisions that destroyed or in other ways hurt countless people. I understand the line that these were human beings living in different eras and that judging them from a modern perspective for their decisions can be unfair.  However, I value the person that defies accepted contemporary practices that actively hurt and damage whole groups of people.  I wish that they had stood firmly against what was wrong and attempted to change the world.  Sadly, for the most part, they didn't.  When I hear the stories of friends whose families descend from Native Americans or African Americans, it saddens me that some of my ancestors were participating in and in some cases actively leading situations that hurt families like theirs.  This summer, as I began my genealogy practice in full force, I discovered the blog of a gentleman who is descended from a female slave and my slave holding third cousin four times removed.  As I read his blog, I hoped beyond hope that this cousin loved her.  Maybe, I thought, he loved her but could not marry her because of the time period.  However, that idea had a ring of naivete that I recognized as it formed.  Did he force himself on her?  Did he rape her? Questions such as this have troubled me greatly.  She is heavily weighted in my heart, and always will be.  Ultimately, I have come to the conclusion that I am going to look at the good---which is that my wonderful cousin exists in this world, and I now have a connection with him.  His goal is to develop the largest database of family trees for families of former slaves, and he is succeeding.  Hopefully, one day soon he will have his own television show.  If you have a chance, check out Brian's blog  https://genealogyadventures.wordpress.com/.  It is informative and entertaining--- I enjoyed reading each new post even before I knew we were cousins!
    Our country is bleeding from wounds created so long ago.  How do we as a nation come to terms with our past and the pain that we all bear because of situations created so long ago?  Brian suggests that we understand that as Americans, we are all interrelated.  We are one.  Genealogy proves it.  Research your line, and you will see that if your family was here for as long as mine, hundreds of years, your genetic make up is a collection of the people who have settled here--- immigrants from around the world.  So... I am holding my breath and diving in to the gene pool.  Sometimes the water is dark and murky, but if you keep swimming, you will find a cool, refreshing pool on the other side.