Ancestry Dot Who Knew?

Who are your people?

Apparently I’m partly Swedish. Not a total surprise. I’m tall, after all, and was blond once upon a time. The surprise is that my sister and brother are not partly Swedish. Funny, that. I guess somewhere along the line, hundreds of years ago, there was a milk man...

Be that as it may, I’m often fascinated by many people’s fascination with their origins, their roots – Ancestry.com and all of that The gained knowledge doesn’t make you better or worse than you were before, it just gives you conversation fodder for the next time you’re in a social situation and have nothing to talk about. 

Somehow, though, many people think it adds to their own mystique, but only when it’s convenient and works in their favor. And isn’t that the great irony of it all, because so many Americans are looking for an ancestry that adds a little exoticism to their mix, but not too much...because that could get someone deported.

And isn’t that hypocritical and hateful and just plain wrong?     

“There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, 

and no slave who has not had a king among his.”

– Helen Keller