One thing I've noticed about the Internet is the ever increasing interest in where we come from. I don't mean where we are born and raised, although that does play some part in who you are. I mean your ancestry. I think we all take a lot of things for granted. It's good to give a little thought now and again to whom we are because of our family history.

I, like many of you, come from a long line of descendants who made courageous strides in our nation's history. Mine trudged across the country from Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky during the Gold Rush to make new homes and lives in a land they really didn't know much about - California. My grandfather has over 20 years of research in his head and he has wanted me to write a book about our genealogy. Not just the facts, but tell the story.

Well, I've written a few chapters for Grandpa, and while he thought the writing was good, it was very apparent that I was writing in a style and way of living that was not comparable to the 1800's. What's the first lesson writers learn? "Know your subject." Grandpa's done the research and been told the stories first hand, I haven't. I had portrayed a great (++++?!) grandmother as wearing trousers while she was rough-housing with her brothers at one point in the story. Yes, she did rough-house, and she did smoke a corncob pipe, but that was where the line was drawn! She would never have been caught dead in anything other than full skirts and all the underthings! After all, decent young women and ladies didn't do that sort of thing in that time and place!

Another grave mistake I made was when I depicted this same woman as serving "lunch" to her husband one day - sandwiches and lemonade! Not! There was no such thing as lunch, sandwiches hadn't been invented yet, and lemonade was not something they could have any time of the year, especially at that particular time! I tried to explain to Grandpa how difficult it was for me to write about things that were in his head, and although he shared his notes and talked about the era at great length, it was he who needed to write the story and I could then just spruce it up.

So, one morning, he decided to try writing about David Hart during a time when he was at the Cumberland Gap. David was the ancestor who led a wagon train of families out to California and settled what is now Mariposa, but was once known as Sebastopol. It was a great piece, but he admitted it took him three hours and David still wasn't out of the Gap yet! So he finally appreciated what I'd been trying to explain. I have wanted him to tape his thoughts, and he has to some degree, but I know that there is a lot more rich history stored in his head that I can't seem to obtain. Unfortunately, he doesn't feel comfortable in talking into a recorder.

Grandpa is a fascinating man and he comes from a long line of interesting characters - from ranchers and landowners to cattle rustlers, and everything in between. They weave a very colorful tapestry, to say the least! There are some people in this country who would like to change the events of history and believe that by not giving these "tainted" events any notice, they will go away and someday be forgotten. Even I have some family members who are ashamed of some "characters" in our lineage, and they would agree with this ideology. But history is just that - history. And history is what make us who we are as Americans, or whatever hyphenation thereof we want to call ourselves. Hopefully, we learn from history, and not repeat some things, but we can't change it or pretend it never happened.

How much do you really know about your own family history? If we don't learn about where we come from, it's difficult to know where we are going. Our histories give us a sense of direction - we either follow suit, or we change our behavior. Either way, the history remains the same. These days we hear a lot about diversity in cultures. While I think it's important to be knowledgable of other nationalities and cultures, I think it's just as important to remember and pass on our own family and cultural customs and lore. I think we sometimes forget that our own backgrounds and cultures are equally as important. After all, aren't we all a little piece of history when you look at the big picture? We all contribute something, no matter how minute, while we are alive.

There are a lot of things this country has done that I'm not very impressed with, but facts are facts. As a good friend has often said, "Get over it." Why not know as much about our own backgrounds as we do about others? I have a maxim by which I live "everybody does it different." Different doesn't mean wrong, and it doesn't necessarily mean right. Different simply means a new way of looking at things. Check into your background and see what you find. You very well may be different from your neighbor, but I bet you'll better appreciate him or her when you've accepted your own differences in your heritage - skeletons and saints alike!

Robyn

email:porter@elite.net

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