Michelle Obama and How Genealogy Tells Us Who We Really ArePosted by Administrator on October 14th, 2009

The revelation that First Lady Michelle Obama’s family history extends back to a white Georgian slaveowner and a slave returned the national spotlight to genealogy. Indeed, it casts a spotlight on the fact that underneath every celebrity, politician, and average joe is a rich story, a family history. 
 
So often we like to define ourselves and others by occupation. We introduce ourselves, "I’m a banker" or "I’m a soccer mom." Others prefer to define themselves by ethnicity. "I am Korean." "I am a Hungarian Jew." Still others pick neighborhood or socio-economic status as their identifier. But are any of these what really define us? At best, they represent a very short-term, rootless worldview. At worst, they represent a forgetting of our true roots.
 
Study after study has shown that family history has a stronger bearing on one’s development and personality than occupation, location, economic status, or even ethnicity. Not too long ago, people identified themselves as the son or daughter of their father or of the house of a certain family. They understood the link from them back to their ancestors and the value that created. It was social capital, as long as your family was respectable. In our individualist society, however, all traces of this practice are being wiped away and with it our conscious ties to the past.
 
Michelle Obama was known as the First Lady, a fierce legal practitioner, and a community organizer. Thanks to genealogy she is also now known as the successful daughter of black slaves, a symbol of the slow redemption of African Americans from the blight of slavery. What do you think drives her more or shapes her character? I’m willing to bet it’s the latter.


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Overcoming Family History Dead EndsPosted by Administrator on October 6th, 2009

What do you do when you come to a big dead end in your family history research? Genealogists rely on physical records, like baptism, marriage, or death records, to complete each part of their family tree. But when these records have been lost, damaged, or never existed in physical form, family history research is stopped dead in its tracks.

Take my Japanese side, for instance. There are a few things we know about my great-grandfather. We know he was named Takei. We know he left Japan as a boy to travel with a Chinese circus (yes, a circus). We know the circus eventually traveled to Hawaii and that Takei opted to stay in Hawaii rather than return to the Orient. Then, on its way back to Asia, the ship struck a reef and sank, taking its manifests and records with it. Takei was befriended and eventually adopted by a British official and his family, his name becoming Takei Doyle.

Because Takei left Japan in secret and the ship’s manifest was lost, there are many things we don’t know about him. We don’t know if Takei was his first name or his family name. We think he may have been from the farmland around Mt. Fuji, but we can’t be sure. In fact, our family has been to Japan several times to search out clue to Takei’s origins with no luck. In our pedigree chart, Takei represents a big stop sign.

I have heard of many family history researchers who have encountered this very situation and been able to make a connection with a distant relative by chance or by miracle. The internet makes it easier for different branches to hook up and eliminate these loose ends.

My family hopes to locate Takei’s family someday. How that will happen we do not know.

When you come up to a roadblock like this, how do you get past it? What tricks and tools do you use to find that missing piece?



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Pioneers and ExamplesPosted by Administrator on October 5th, 2009

What effect does your ancestry have on the way you approach life? Does it make you want to push past obstacles and be your very best self? Or does it make you inclined to take the path of least resistance? Our family history can be an inspiration- our ancestors set a high bar for us and we feel inclined and able to follow suit. Mediocre achievements by our forebears, however, can make us: 1) feel justified in being mediocre; 2) eager to overcome the vicious cycle of mediocrity; or 3) cast off our heritage altogether in favor of reinventing ourselves.

I live in an area with a rich pioneer heritage. Most of my neighbors are the descendants of Mormon pioneers who, forced from their homes by mobs, crossed the Great Plains on foot over thousands of miles of brush, rocks, and ice to settle in what is now Utah. Their march was an act of faith and determination, and their legacy feeds the faith of their descendants today. When they encounter modern-day problems, they are quick to apply their ancestors’ examples.

I, on the other hand, am descended from other pioneers. My ancestors left lush, green Hawaii to come to Utah from the other direction to help build the magnificent temple that now sits in Salt Lake City. They settled in and scraped a living out of one of the most arid, unforgiving pieces of land I’ve ever seen. Like the other pioneers, they did it for faith and because of their belief in a greater purpose. I must say their choices, their grit and determination, and their faith influence the choices I make today.

Here in America, most of us come from pioneer, pilgrim, or immigrant stock. Their stories are our foundation. How does your ancestors’ story influence who you are and the choices you make?



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