Today I had a philosophical moment. I was thinking about genealogy and in particular about my mixed ethnic background. I have ancestors from Italy, Ireland, Canada, Scotland, and more. At times, I have yearned for a more direct connection to a single ethnicity so that I could more clearly identify myself with a particular culture. I wanted to be able to say that “I’m Italian” or “I’m mostly Irish” or something like that.
There is one clear statement that I can make about my heritage and that is that I am an American. In fact, if you consider what makes America so special, one thing that comes to mind is that America is a young nation where many cultures are represented. Americans are lucky in that they can identify with the cultures of the homelands of their ancestors as well as our very own American culture.
As we move forward in time, people continue to move from nation to nation. People of various ethnic origins sometimes end up living halfway across the world from their ancestral homeland. When people marry and have children, their ethnic backgrounds combine to form the ethnic background of that child. Genealogy can help us keep our connections to the cultural traditions of our ancestors as we go forth and become more and more diverse. As part of genealogical research, it is both fun and important to preserve family traditions so that future generations can connect with the cultures of their ancestors.
My family has developed traditions over the years that celebrate our cultural background. Many of these traditions involve food and holiday celebrations like St. Patrick’s Day, Christmas, and Easter. I look forward to sharing these cultural traditions with my son as well as some American traditions like baseball, apple pie, and Independence Day. Some day he will be able to reflect on his heritage, as I am today, and realize that while he is a descendant of many different cultures, he is also all-American.