![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Here we go again...
Feb. 20th, 2011 05:51 pm...or maybe not.
Back in 1978 or so, in the aftermath of Roots—which, though not the first television miniseries, probably marked the emergence of the miniseries as a phenomenon—I was indifferently inspired to hunt down my own family's "roots." I say "indifferently" because the results were precisely that: indifferent. I found nothing apart from my biological father's obituary in The New York Times. Then again, in retrospect, I had no idea what I was doing.
Moving to my childhood neighborhood after returning from a stint working in the Soviet Union (and getting married there) had the serendipitous side effect of allowing my half-brother Steve—who did know what he was doing—to find me where our common father's obituary put me at the time of his death (i.e., in the neighborhood where I grew up).
Steve's efforts showed me the way and gave me some inspiration. The result was a number of trips to the New York Public Library at 5th and 42nd in Manhattan, to the genealogical section. I made a number of discoveries, took copious notes, and shared them with my half brothers. A couple of years ago, I entrusted the notebook I had compiled to Drew and Shannon.
Just recently, NBC has been broadcasting Who Do You Think You Are? (with quite a bit of support from—and for—Ancestry.com). The show lets viewers peek into the genealogy of celebrities (Tim McGraw, Rosie O'Donnell) and oh-by-the-way illustrates how one might go about finding things out about one's own past (using a combination of shoeleather, sites like Ancestry.com, and professional genealogists). The site is pretty impressive,but it costs money to be a member1. Then again, it does put some pretty extensive resources at one's disposal if you're interested in that kind of thing.
For chuckles, I took advantage of the free trial period on Ancestry.com, went back on my dad's side of the family and managed to trace a line back (piggybacking on the family trees of others) to a certain Hans Broennimann, born in 1500 in Oberbalm, Bern, Switzerland. (The migration to America occurred, according to my notes from 1978, in 1709, when William Penn invited Mennonites to settle in Pennsylvania, and one of my ancestors—a weaver by trade named Melchior—answered the call.)
I'm still a little ambivalent about the whole genealogy thing, because while there's a part of me that goes "Hey, that's cool!", there's another part that says "So what?" History provides no shortage of outstanding people who have come from humble roots, and as many, if not more, outstanding people who have produced good-for-nothing descendants. (Heck, back in the Meno, Socrates asked why it should be that upstanding men like Pericles produce sons that are not? This, despite nature and nurture.) Still, the "that's cool" part is, um, cool. I mean—being able to go back 500 years?
Cheers...
1 UPDATE of 21 Feb: After spending 20 minutes on hold to the Ancestry.com toll-free number to ask a question, I went ahead and canceled the trial membership I had signed up for. Interestingly enough, now I'm simply a "registered guest" on the site, so I guess I misspoke: paid membership is apparently not a requirement on Ancestry.com.
Back in 1978 or so, in the aftermath of Roots—which, though not the first television miniseries, probably marked the emergence of the miniseries as a phenomenon—I was indifferently inspired to hunt down my own family's "roots." I say "indifferently" because the results were precisely that: indifferent. I found nothing apart from my biological father's obituary in The New York Times. Then again, in retrospect, I had no idea what I was doing.
Moving to my childhood neighborhood after returning from a stint working in the Soviet Union (and getting married there) had the serendipitous side effect of allowing my half-brother Steve—who did know what he was doing—to find me where our common father's obituary put me at the time of his death (i.e., in the neighborhood where I grew up).
Steve's efforts showed me the way and gave me some inspiration. The result was a number of trips to the New York Public Library at 5th and 42nd in Manhattan, to the genealogical section. I made a number of discoveries, took copious notes, and shared them with my half brothers. A couple of years ago, I entrusted the notebook I had compiled to Drew and Shannon.
Just recently, NBC has been broadcasting Who Do You Think You Are? (with quite a bit of support from—and for—Ancestry.com). The show lets viewers peek into the genealogy of celebrities (Tim McGraw, Rosie O'Donnell) and oh-by-the-way illustrates how one might go about finding things out about one's own past (using a combination of shoeleather, sites like Ancestry.com, and professional genealogists). The site is pretty impressive,
For chuckles, I took advantage of the free trial period on Ancestry.com, went back on my dad's side of the family and managed to trace a line back (piggybacking on the family trees of others) to a certain Hans Broennimann, born in 1500 in Oberbalm, Bern, Switzerland. (The migration to America occurred, according to my notes from 1978, in 1709, when William Penn invited Mennonites to settle in Pennsylvania, and one of my ancestors—a weaver by trade named Melchior—answered the call.)
I'm still a little ambivalent about the whole genealogy thing, because while there's a part of me that goes "Hey, that's cool!", there's another part that says "So what?" History provides no shortage of outstanding people who have come from humble roots, and as many, if not more, outstanding people who have produced good-for-nothing descendants. (Heck, back in the Meno, Socrates asked why it should be that upstanding men like Pericles produce sons that are not? This, despite nature and nurture.) Still, the "that's cool" part is, um, cool. I mean—being able to go back 500 years?
Cheers...
1 UPDATE of 21 Feb: After spending 20 minutes on hold to the Ancestry.com toll-free number to ask a question, I went ahead and canceled the trial membership I had signed up for. Interestingly enough, now I'm simply a "registered guest" on the site, so I guess I misspoke: paid membership is apparently not a requirement on Ancestry.com.
