Ancestry.com has a new feature where they will find famous people that you are related to. I clicked on it, not expecting any results, and was surprised to get more than a dozen, just from a single branch on my mom's side of the family. Among them were a US President, several first ladies, Walt Disney, and one of the original 102 Mayflower passengers as a direct ancestor. That last one didn't exactly surprise me. I started this whole ancestry search in an effort to prove that I'm an American. Even as a child, I remember my teacher asking us to report on our country of ancestry. Of course, most children said they had multiple countries of ancestry. German on mom's side and French on dad's, or something like that. So Teacher would say, just pick one that you identify with. What do you feel like? "I feel like an American," I would say stubbornly. When we got the assignment to interview a dead person, or choose the famous dead person you would most like to meet, I always said Laura Ingalls Wilder. My mom had the Little House books, and as a kid, I read them over and over again, really connected with the stories. The connection stayed with me, and it occurred to me a few months ago that it might be worthwhile to research her genealogy. Did I think we were cousins? I'm not sure. But I did find her tree on ancestry.com, and then saved it for review in the back of my mind later.
So, even though I was surprised that the link to famous people actually worked for me (I guess I was surprised at how much ancestry.com knows about me), I can honestly say I wasn't the slightest bit surprised that Laura Ingalls Wilder was listed as my cousin. It didn't even give me the chills. I just said, "of course", and smiled.
No comments:
Post a Comment