Who do you think you are?

Have you guys seen the preview for this show? Well, I saw one the other day and it was of Sarah Jessica Parker finding out that her great grandma, or someone, was accused of being a witch in the Salem witch trials. In the preview, she says, "This changes everything about who I thought I was." As I watched that, I thought, "How?" How does finding out that someone you didn't even know was accused of being a witch change things? I could see if she found out that she was a quarter Asian or something that was actually persona altering.

I can remember the day that I found out that I was part European. I was shocked. SHOCKED. I know that you are reading this and thinking, "Have you seen yourself? You couldn't have thought that you were a full blooded African." Well, in my defense, I was 10 when my granddaddy told me that the slave owner had procreated with my great great grandmother, and that the little white boy that I played with all the time was actually my cousin. When I got to school the next day, I couldn't wait to tell him. "Ben, did you know that we're cousins?!" In my mind, I couldn't figure out what could be better than finding out you were related to someone you were already such good friends with. But reality set in with his response, "Yeah I know, but I can't claim you." I just stared at him. Even at the age of 10, I knew what that meant.

I'm not trying to say that SJP couldn't have been profoundly impacted by finding out that her ancestor was accused of being a witch. I'm not in the belittling people's experiences business; I'm just saying that I expected more. Brooke Shields found out that she stemmed from royalty. I will agree that that has an impact on who you thought you were.

Inspired by watching Oprah today, I set out to find out more about myself. I always knew that I was part European on my mom's side and part Native American on my dad's. I guess it was just a few years ago that I found out that I was also part European on my dad's side. French and English, to be exact. But even with these genealogical discoveries, I'm still left empty. For starters, I only have pieces of information about my mom's mother's side of the family and my dad's mother's side. I don't know anything about either of my grandfather's sides. There is no telling what I could find there. But more importantly than all of that, I would just like to know the story. What kind of strength do I come from? What kind of passions?

As an African American, I think that it's easy to have some sort of sense of where you came from. Not geologically, but capability wise. When you look back at the history of African Americans, you see a group of people who were strong beyond all belief. To be taken from your home, your country, your family, only to end up thousands of miles away in the worst conditions imaginable, and to rise up from that. I think that it is great to have that sort of motivation behind you, behind me. Anything that I am going through is not nearly as bad as what my ancestors suffered, and rose up from. They paved the way for me and I refuse to let their efforts be in vain. I look at my Native American ancestors and I see fighters and lovers of nature and life. I look at my English roots and see people who didn't want to stay in England and live under the king's rule anymore, and decided to leave to make a better life for themselves. No wonder I'm such a nomad; it's in my blood, I'm always looking for the best conditions. And to my French roots: I understand where I get my love for food, especially pastries. Yummy!

Ancestry.com costs about $30 a month if you sign up for the worldwide one. I think that with the little bit that I know about my ancestors, it would be dumb for me to think that I only needed to trace back in the US. I'm looking forward to finding out more about me, and learning about what makes me who I am. Of course, it would be a lot easier if some tv show would just fund it and do all the research for me.