re: Do you care about your ancestors or your descendants?

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Outside of immediate family that is around while you are alive, I cannot imagine the headspace of anyone answering yes.

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Pretty narrow thinking there - I have been interested in my progenitors all my life. Started with my youngest memories of my dad being the authority of knowledge about our local relatives ancestry = all learned by word of mouth - he know who married who when and where. The one and only vacation we ever took was to visit the home of his great grandfather in Clio, Alabama.

I built a lineage tree of all his acquired knowledge before his deathin the late 70s and have spent a lot of my free time since then building it back a far as I can go with modern ancestry software capabilities.

And I find it a comforting feature of knowing "where we came from" - I cannot see anything wrong with it.

I like knowing that my 'immigration roots' go all the way back to the founding or our first settlements. My latest immigrant ancestor came here in 1830. Most were firmly long time residents in 1776. Have many who served with the revolutionary forces and one who was a 'loyalist' - don't know if the took took up arms with the redcoats or not.

I confidently call myself a descendent of colonialists, not a descendent of 'immigrants.' You immigrate to established governments, not to unexplored land. Those are called 'explorers' if they fan out and keep looking around. If they settle down and start raising a a family, they are settlers, or "colonialists."

And yes - I care about ALL history - especially ancient history of Rome, Greece, Egypt, Japan. Sort of a hobby of mine now that I can no longer hunt, fish, play sports, raise kids and grandkids, backpack in the mountains, take motorcycle trips, raise a garden.

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Pretty narrow thinking there - I have been interested in my progenitors all my life. Started with my youngest memories of my dad being the authority of knowledge about our local relatives ancestry = all learned by word of mouth - he know who married who when and where. The one and only vacation we ever took was to visit the home of his great grandfather in Clio, Alabama.

I built a lineage tree of all his acquired knowledge before his deathin the late 70s and have spent a lot of my free time since then building it back a far as I can go with modern ancestry software capabilities.

And I find it a comforting feature of knowing "where we came from" - I cannot see anything wrong with it.

I like knowing that my 'immigration roots' go all the way back to the founding or our first settlements. My latest immigrant ancestor came here in 1830. Most were firmly long time residents in 1776. Have many who served with the revolutionary forces and one who was a 'loyalist' - don't know if the took took up arms with the redcoats or not.

I confidently call myself a descendent of colonialists, not a descendent of 'immigrants.' You immigrate to established governments, not to unexplored land. Those are called 'explorers' if they fan out and keep looking around. If they settle down and start raising a a family, they are settlers, or "colonialists."

And yes - I care about ALL history - especially ancient history of Rome, Greece, Egypt, Japan. Sort of a hobby of mine now that I can no longer hunt, fish, play sports, raise kids and grandkids, backpack in the mountains, take motorcycle trips, raise a garden.

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Honest question...is this seriously what many of you got from my initial post? I'm not really following how what I asked, and why I was obviously asking it, got turned into some suggestion that I was denigrating the idea of being interested in one's genealogy or history in general.

To keep it simple, my real question was how many people really feel a sense of closeness with people you never knew or will never know such that it effects your relationships with others today? Do the trials and tribulations of those family members in the past, people you never met ever, cause you to hate people today that happen to share the same characteristics of the people that may have been responsible for those trials and tribulations?

FWIW, I've only been able to research my own genealogy to about 1880 or so with the patriarch of my family name coming to America from Germany. Guy's name was Lothar! This would have been my great great grandfather. I'm certainly grateful he made the journey, but I have no emotional attachment to him or anything he went through. And I certainly would not feel anger towards someone today because of something he may have been subjected to in 1885 simply because the person today looks a little like the person who wronged him back then.

My wife decided for her 50th birthday she wanted to learn about her heritage. She was adopted and knew nothing about her bio parents. She did ancestry and learned she was Hungarian/Lithuanian. Total shock! I always assumed she was Irish (Born in MASS with fair skin, dark hair and green eyes). With my brilliant investigation skills I learned her mother placed her for adoption as a college Freshman. She later married the Bio dad and had another daughter 8 years after my wife.

My wife had two bros (no sisters) in her adopted family. She immediately bonded with her sister and they are also inseparable. The bio dad passed in 2016. The Bio mom hates me for kicking down her door of secrets. I didn't care because the relationship the sisters have is worth it.

I also learned my ancestor fought in the Rev War under Galvez and I got accepted as a Son of The Am Revolution. I also learned he married the daughter of one of the soldiers he fought with. They bought land from the man and settled near Cecilia, La. Cool story.

Bottom line... everyone should know where they come from.

On a less positive side... I learned my mom is 3rd cousins with Jeff Sessions. I guess that makes me 3rd cousin 1x removed....

It’s interesting to see where parts of my family were from but the actual names mean nothing to me.

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this spiraled into me somehow suggesting no one should care at all about history or their genealogy!

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sorry - I only read the post I responded to - it was the use of the word "close" that threw my thought pattern astray.

I have always maintained that it was a fools-errand to apply whatever passes as "todays culture" to that of any past era - certainly more than one generation in the past.

People who do that - on either side - are ridiculous idiots to be ignored - certainly not to be appeased in any way whatsoever. This has been my constant refrain for my entire adult life.

I do revere our founders - no better leaders for a free and independent people have ever stood forth and together, from no power base whatsoever, changed the direction of the world forever.

And anyone who ever expected anyone - past, present, or future - to be 'perfect' in any sense of the word is to be ridiculed and ignored.

Nothing would make me more proud to have a black slave in my lineage - to reflect on the burdens and savagery he endured would make me proud to have those genes in my system.

I am proud of how I got here - never a 'privileged' person in my lineage - (except for Pocahontas/Rolfe) - I have several other native Americans on both sides. I have a veteran of Napoleon's army. I have a tory. I look at all those people as standing up for their beliefs. All were moral ancestors.

I grew up in the great depression. My parents were dirt poor. Dad (eldest child) dropped out of school in 3rd grade when his mother died and he had to take up her chores around the house. My mother had to leave school in 7th grade to help support the family. They were the ones who made me the person I am today - I never felt "close" to either of them during my childhood but am exceedingly proud of their influence on my life since I became an adult.

I react hastily sometime when someone tries to blame me and/or my lineage for the bullshite that is going on today under the false flags of "diversity is our strength" - "tolerance" - et al.

again -