November 13, 2007

• Family Tree

  Well, since I haven't felt well much of the day, I spent part of it reading a book I picked up the other day. It's called Family Tree by Barbara Delinsky. It's about this very caucasian couple who end up mysteriously having a mixed race baby and the reactions they have and get from friends and family. The book makes it clear that there was no in vitro so no mess ups in the lab. The conclusion is that one or both have some African American ancestors. The father knows his lineage back to the Mayflower (or maybe his family just thinks it does). There is more of a question with Dana, the mom.

  Anyway, it's just interesting how everyone reacts. So far, it has been a good read. Will both or one or the other love the baby less because she doesn't look like them? How important is it to uncover their roots?

  It really, in some ways, goes back to the question of what makes us who we are? How important are genes? Is it nature or nurture?

  My paternal grandfather had an interest in genealogy. I've looked into it too. I enjoyed hearing family stories when I was younger. We can trace our lineage back to England. Robert Brooke migrated here and was the first British Governor of Baltimore. Someone else was George Washington's God Father. But on the more infamous side, Roger Brooke Tawney was the Supreme Court Justice who wrote part of the Dred Scott Decision before the Civil War. He wrote, "The black man has no rights which the white man is bound to uphold." So there are fun things and not so fun things you learn about when you trace your history . . . .

  I really only know one side of my family tree and it definitely shows the patriarchal view. I know very little about each of the wives who married into the family. So, there is a whole portion of things unaccounted for. I don't know much about my mom's side of the family either.

  Have you ever done a spiritual family tree? I became a Christian through the youth group at Monfort Heights United Methodist Church. How about you? Who are you spiritually "descended" from?

   

  • 6:07 pm
  • 1 Comment