We cannot choose our ancestors any more than we can choose our birthdays.
Like it or not, we inherit quite a bit from those who have come before us.
Nature or nurture?
As I suspect most parents do, I believe in nurture. Surely our efforts in “raising our kids” have some influence beyond protection, education and some degree of financial independence.
And yet, there is much we cannot explain about human behavior. Why are some kids more athletic, better looking or smarter than others? Why do some follow the “rules” while their siblings seem to take “rules were made to be broken” to heart. Why are some siblings more susceptible to certain diseases? Every parent with more than one child that I know has at one time or other said that their own kids are very different from each other.
We really don’t know why, but we do know that to a large part of who we are is “hard wired.” This wiring can only come from one place: Our parents and everyone who went before them.
DNA has opened up a whole new way of looking at our ancestors. It has also opened up a Pandora’s box that generates even more questions than it answers.
Benefits of knowing our DNA results: I am sure there is a sense of closure for those people who finally find out “who” they are. It often is the case that having DNA results can confirm the stories that we have heard from our parents and other relatives. There seem also to be advantages to knowing the medical history of one’s ancestors.
Problems with knowing: One’s understanding of who they are is routed strongly in stories told by parents and other relatives. DNA could expose long held “family secrets.” It is also human nature to imagine that we are the descendants of some kind of royalty, great wealth or an “important” person. For many Americans this is just not realistic. Most of our ancestors left their homes in search of something better. Left unsaid is that that many of our ancestors were not really successful where they came from. In some cases they were really just running away.
I am very interested in my personal ancestry. So is Marianne. To the best of our knowledge we share no common ancestors. And we do not have any direct descendants from our marriage. This shared interest in ancestry leads us down separate roads. We are searching different people and different families. And yet, the search and where and who we came from is equally as interesting to both of us.
Marianne’s family roots on the Larkin side lead back to the earliest settlers in Connecticut and Rhode Island. Because her father (Bert Larkin) died from polio at age 28 when Marianne was just three, and he was the only son, Marianne is the last Larkin. The Larkin name ends with her. On her mother’s side the roots go back to south-eastern Minnesota and on her father’s to Lake Piseco in New York State.
My Simpson paternal roots lead to Northern Ireland via Ontario & Minnesota. On my Mother’s side the roots lead to Sweden on one side and to England on the other. Family stories include being among the original residents of Long Island, The Civil War, and World Wars 1 & 2.
Obviously this is just a snapshot of the entire lineage each of us has been given. Even if we don’t know exactly who was who, we can be certain that we are the end product of countless generations of people. Scientists believe all humans (at least the homo sapien part of us) came originally from Africa. I believe them even though I don’t really understand their methodology.
But you don’t have to go back to Africa to enjoy knowing who your more recent ancestors are. One part of the interest for me is the “why” certain things happen. The “why” related to most of our ancestors has been lost forever when they died.
For instance, I know that my Great-Grandfather and Great-Grandmother on my mother’s mother’s side grew up in Sweden and somehow ended up in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania where they had 5 children. But why did they leave Sweden? Why, of all places, did they choose Tamaqua? Why did they bury their 2-year-old daughter Selma, who died of cholera, in Brooklyn rather than in Pennsylvania where they lived? Why did they move to Isanti County, Minnesota? These, and a thousand other questions will remain unanswered. Or will they?
In addition to DNA, we now have incredible resources (such as census data and official now-public government records) available to us via Ancestry.com and other providers who can provide documented evidence of at least some events The internet has also allowed us to quickly and easily learn about history in far away (time and space) places such as Tamaqua where my grandmother was born.
As it turns out, at the time my grandparents moved there, Tamaqua was a thriving mining town and often a center of conflict within the labor movement. The town was the regional headquarters for the Molly Maguires, the group of Irish immigrants often associated with violence. Were my family members impacted by this violence and unrest? It is likely, but I really don’t know – the truth is again lost when they died. Perhaps they choose not to talk about this?
My second cousin Craig Aldworth found hundred-year-old property records that seem to show that the land my mother lived on when she was a girl in Minnesota was actually a part of the Cedar Creek Farm which was owned at that time by my great-grandfather, Christian Johansson (AKA Johnson). The land my grandfather Sayer raised his family on is not contiguous with the rest of the farm which was several miles away.
Again, the people who could explain this are all dead but having access to historical records about where and when my ancestors lived makes it is interesting to me to ponder what really happened to them and why they made the choices they did.
Every family has a healthy dose of mystery related to their ancestors. For many of us this mystery is like a huge puzzle that begs to be solved.
Some people just don’t seem to care about their ancestors. That’s OK with me, to each his/her own. I also think that sooner or later at least one person in each family becomes the story teller and custodian of the family history .
If you are that story teller in your family, my recommendation is to share what you know. You won’t be here forever and once you are gone the stories go with you. The best way to do this is not just to research your own family tree, but to document your findings and your own history in some permanent way. For me that that has meant self-publishing books about my family.
Soon enough many of us will become ancestors to those who follow. Our stories will be a part of a much larger quilt. We all may not be a direct ancestor per se, but almost certainly we will become a part of the family story as an uncle, aunt, cousin or step father/mother.
Tell your story now.
Jim, another good subject that means a lot to many of us! It seems that my family came to America seeking religious freedom. On my mother’s side, ancestors from Switzerland were Mennonites, and they were not welcome in their own country. The Binggeli family went to Germany, and then was invited to come to Pennsylvania by William Penn, and became the Binkley family in Lancaster.
My father’s people, the Estey family, came in the 1600’s to the Massachusetts Bay Colony as Puritans. Soon thereafter, my 8th great-grandmother was hanged as a witch in the Salem Witch Trials. And the family moved to Canada after that.
Lots to learn, pretty darn interesting…Pat
Thanks for your work as a genealogist, Jim. And for the prod. Sometimes there may not be a ready audience for stories, but once recorded — there they are for future lineage “explorers.” Especially now with the permanence of digital media.
Like this blog!
Jim
Control of our behavior may not just be limited to Nature or Nurture. The old Norse believed each individual also harbored a fylgja. Neil Price, in Children of Ash and Elm, A History of the Vikings, states: Fylgja are “the embodied link to one’s ancestors. She moved on at death, continuing down the family line… In any event, everyone carried with them -through them – the spirit of the family, watching over them and guiding their steps. The fylgjur could not be seen other than in dreams, where they appeared with warnings and advice.”
Sweet Dreams.
Craig
Jim, I agree with your comments about ancestors. My father immigrated from Norway in 1907. He was born in Sweden and moved to Fredrikstad, Norway, and then followed his brother to Minnesota. Their father lost their farm and there was quite a bit of poverty and I think that’s why they came here. He was #10 or #11 of 11 children so more opportunity in the United States. He worked his way from Minnesota to Montana where he settled. He would always write to his brothers and sisters in Norway and Sweden but never told any of us about his family or where he was born. I received a letter from a Norwegian cousin in 1991 who was tracing family roots. My cousin, Kjell, and I are the same age, were both teachers, and in 1994 we visited Kjell, his family, and met many of my relatives. My wife, Leslie, and I have now been to Norway 3 times, my daughter and niece have visited Kjell, and Kjell’s family have visited us in Washington state. I can now trace my roots to the 1700’s. On my mother’s side I recently learned her grandmother was a full blood Chippewa who was born at a fort that was in the center of Regina, Manitoba. Leslie’s family is from Ireland and we have visited her relatives several times. This summer, Leslie’s cousin, spend a week with us. Helen lives in Newtownards, Northern Ireland. You’re right. Learning about your ancestry makes a big difference. Semper Fidelis.