Finding My Roots

 I enjoy watching the show "Finding Your Roots" on PBS.  I think if I were to pick a celebrity to sit and have lunch with, I might choose Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the host of that show.  I like the questions he asks his guests and I could probably think of a few questions I would like to ask him.  We are both, it would seem, interested in the past.

I have a pretty good grasp on my family tree.  The most recent immigrants were the Poles who came in the late 1800s.  The rest of the crew largely preceded the birth of our nation.  I have a raft of Revolutionary War soldiers, War of 1812 soldiers, Civil War soldiers (Union side) and so on. My heritage is largely white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant, and it was only those Poles who were the late comers who made me Catholic.

I am very disinterested in looking for nobility or royalty or even famous people in my ancestry.  I have found a few titled Englishmen I think, but that really isn't what I am looking for.  I wish women's history were recorded better.  I am curious about the lives of those ladies, my forebearers. I am interested  in where my ancestors lived and why they traveled where they did.  The DNA stuff has really made it interesting. I find some of my DNA confusing. Some of it is so predictable.  I had hoped to find some variety in my heritage, but by in large I am northern European, British Isles, and a good dose of German. 

All this means is that although I have not found any slave holders in my direct ancestors, I have and my people have enjoyed white privilege.  We have had a leg up. When the chips were down, we were able to come back in a generation or so.  Nobody hated us for who were are, just because we breathe.  Nobody felt that they had a right to take things away from us.  My ancestors were helped along.  I find that I have to sit with that sometimes.  I sometimes don't know how to feel about it all.