100
Motherlands
OF ALL THE DESTINATIONS SPOTLIGHTED IN THIS BOOK, NONE ARE as meaningful as our own motherlands. At some point in life, return to your ancestral home, be it a specific neighborhood or an entire continent, to learn from the roots within you.
Start by conducting a little research. Heritage Quest—one of the largest genealogical data providers in the United States—offers an online tutorial called “Genealogy 101” with tips on everything from drawing a family tree to obtaining vital information (such as old birth, death, and marriage records). They also sell CD-ROMs with titles like “Your Family Name in 1870 America.” Another excellent resource is the Family History Library, which has more than thirty-four hundred branches in sixty-four countries. Founded to assist members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (a.k.a. the Mormons) in tracing their lineages, these libraries allow non-members to peruse their extensive microfilm collections as well. There are also thousands of organizations dedicated to genealogy, many of which host web sites and annual conferences where root-seekers can swap branches. Simply type in your racial or ethnic group and “Genealogical Society” on Google and see what pops up.
If your family’s origins remain a mystery, simply go with what you do know. Soul Planet Travel, for instance, offers “Black History Tours” to Nigeria and Salvador Bahia in Brazil which have become popular with African-Americans who are curious about their heritage but don’t know their exact tribe.
Even those of us who were adopted can find some way to explore our roots. Take artist Rachel DayStar Payne of Corpus Christi, Texas. She knows only that her biological parents attended the University of Texas at Austin in 1969, but that one fact has given her a sense of connection.
“Whenever I find people who were in Austin at that time, I try to meet my parents through them,” she says. “Those are my family stories—as close as I’ll ever get to them. And I love just wandering around Austin, knowing I’m from that hippie haven, that place of art and Bohemian ideals.”
If your genealogical inquiries lead you to an actual ancestral village, spend as much time there as possible. You just might stumble upon long-lost kin, as writer Barbara Belejack did on her recent trip to Slovakia. Thanks to an uncle who had visited thirty years prior, she had a general idea of her village’s location. Clutching an old photograph of her grandfather, she knocked on a door at random. The woman inside thought he looked like a man in the neighboring village, and advised her to meet him. Barbara did, and sure enough—met her father’s first cousin.
“I always used to think that I must have been switched at birth, because I never really understood my Slovak culture. I tried studying Russian in college but it never took, and I spent most of my adult life exploring Latin America,” she says. “But there was a connection with him. We spent the afternoon together, and it almost felt like I was back in my grandparent’s kitchen.”
If you can’t locate a living family member, ask around for the local historian (or oldest living resident) to see if they know anything about your family name. Request relevant birth, marriage, or death certificates at the equivalent of the county clerk’s office; make rubbings of tombstones engraved with your family name at the local cemetery; fill a jar with earth. Above all, talk with the old-timers, for your own version of “family stories.”
If nothing else, you’ll leave with the satisfaction that you witnessed the same sunset as your ancestors, and that your boots collected the same dust.