Digging for witches...

Dear Miriam and Sarah,

Genealogy is sure a strange thing.  In the course of researching your family tree, I have discovered these things called "heritage societies." These include the well-known Daughters of the American Revolution but also lesser known groups like the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, the Jamestowne Society, the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Order of Descendants of Ancient Planters, the Society of the Descendants of the Founders of Hartford, and (my personal favorite) the Associated Daughters of Early American Witches.  I really hope I find a woman accused of witchcraft among our ancestors.  I would join that society in a heartbeat!

But mostly I find myself wondering about these societies and about the purpose of doing genealogy. I have found in your tree ancestors that founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony and no less than four(!) Ancient Planters of Virginia.  Don't know what an ancient planter is?  Go here: http://www.ancientplanters.org/about.htm . There are also men who fought in the Revolutionary War.  So, technically we could apply to join many of these heritage societies.  But, this is where the problem comes in.  I really don't care about the Ancient Planters in your tree any more than I care about the Irish slate picker in Scranton, PA in 1890 or the Jewish merchants in nineteenth-century San Francisco. Its all good to me. It is all part of your glorious story.  I read somewhere that there is such a thing as a prestigious family tree and it was suggested that this prestige, at least in American circles, derives from early colonial ancestors. I think that is weird.  It is no accomplishment of mine that a few of my ancestors were Ancient Planters!  I wasn't even there!  I do genealogy because I love the stories of all my ancestors. I love seeing how they moved around, who they married, how they coped.  I love thinking about why they left Pennsylvania for Nebraska or North Carolina for Kentucky or the Rhineland for California or, indeed, England for Virginia.  I marvel at the hard decisions these people made and the struggle of it all.  Everybody in your tree has a story. And all the stories are compelling and all the stories are part of the greater American story. I have been pursuing the story of your illegitimate great great grandmother with as much zeal as the story of any colonial planter. 

I still hope I find a woman accused of witchcraft though.  I'll keep digging.

Love,
Mom