RE: 250 Years, Immigration, and Me
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I'm very much with you... many of my ancestors came to North America 300–400 years ago. Most of them came through the Jamestown, Virginia, colony instead of Massachusetts, or to one of the colonial spots in North Carolina. Several of them fought in the Revolutionary War, too, and have been honored with markers on their graves.
It isn't just this country, either — most other countries were populated by immigrants from somewhere. England was settled by Angles and Saxons from [what is now] Germany, as well as Celtic peoples from Central Europe, with a few stalwart Vikings for good measure. The Celtic peoples also settled in France, Spain, Ireland, and Scotland as well as what is now England. Some of those Spaniards then went on to conquer the New World and never left, mixing their blood with the Aztecs, Inca, and other native peoples. Most of us are "mutts" in some way and should be celebrating immigrants and diversity instead of shouting against them in short-sighted, not-so-righteous indignation.
"Kudos!" to your 3xgreat grandmother, Phoebe, for listening to her heart and marrying for love instead of her family's expectations. If more people were true to their hearts instead of blindly following the howling pack, this country would be in better shape today. Much respect! 💞
Isn't it exciting to feel history? It's in our blood. Not just yours and mine, but everyone's. I love to trace the movement of peoples across the world and across time.
We are all connected, if we go far enough back. It's comforting to me to think that my life is anchored in a long line of people, that I'm not an isolate. I'm part of a fabric. It makes life more meaningful.
We are 'mutts', indeed, and I celebrate that complicated ancestry. My one regret is that as I trace the different lines of my family tree the record goes cold at a certain point. Think of all those ancestors back during the plague, the Napoleonic Wars. The mini Ice Age. Maybe even slavery. Think of what they survived, and here we are :))
Thanks for that great comment. Let's hope we have better days ahead.
That bugs me, too. One line of my family tree is easily traceable to 1418 A.D., then goes cold. If I lived overseas in the area where that line disappears, it might be possible to pick it up and continue, but it's tough to do it from afar. The other branches become untraceable long before that. But yeah, we might have had a common ancestor a couple hundred generations ago! 😁
I am certain we do!!!😄