Episode Information
Note: This program originally aired on December 5, 2008.
Today, Where We Live, we're getting in touch with our roots. We all associate ourselves with an ethnicity or a culture. Whether we're of African, Irish or Columbian descent - most of us want to know something about our ancestry or family history. Coming up, WNPR Producer Catie Talarski leads us through her journey to get in touch with her Polish heritage. And, we'll talk to Hartford Courant columnist Susan Campbell and Duke professor Tom Ferraro - author of Feeling Italian: The Art of Ethnicity in America - about searching for their roots. And we want to hear from you. Are you interested in your ancestry? How do you connect with your family history? Which ethnic group to you relate to - and is it possible to consider yourself, say "Italian" if you've never been there?
Join the conversation! Add your suggestions, questions and comments below.
Listener Email from Bob
According to the records I have, I was born in Cook County Hospital on February 1st, 1945 and was subsequently adopted from an adoption
agency in Chicago, IL (the Cradle) in 1945. About 10 or 12 years
ago I contacted the court that controlled the adoptions files of and was told that I was not permitted to know anything about my parent(s). I am deeply interested in my heritage and would appreciate any suggestions that might reveal my roots.
Thank you,
Bob Lane
Email from Al
Getting Back to Our Roots
I loved that President-elect Obama identified himself as a mutt. I think most Americans can rightly wear that label. As a teacher of genealogy, I delight in helping my students discover the threads that combine to make each of their unique mutt ancestries. I proudly wear my own English, French-Canadian, Irish, Native American and Scottish ancestry and am pleased to say that my children are industriously incorporating new ethnicities into our family story by mariage.
Where
I enjoyed listening to the show and the interest that people have in finding out where they are from. My story is probably common. My parents divorced, my mother remarried and her new husband adopted my bother and me. We lost half our family until I started doing geneology. I'd always heard my father's family was no good, never amounted to anything. Also heard that we come from a very small family. Hah! On my father's side we are related to many presidents, artists, actors, writers, poets,politicians, clergy and further back to three or four royal lines. Almost twenty years of research I now have almost 100,00 relatives in the family tree...some small family!!
On a personal note, though. Finding that many ancestors suffered from depression and some committed suicide helps me to understand myself and my moods as well as those of my children and grandchildren. The tree holds people who marched to a different drummer. I rather identify with so many of them and now no longer feel like a misfit. I think it helps make a child whole who suffers through divorced parents or death of a parent.
This in-depth and thoughtful
This in-depth and thoughtful piece reminds me why I listen to public radio.
Proud to be ethnic American
As social animals we always feel a need to belong. However, how far are we willing to go to fullfill that need?
At what point to we proudly embrace our American ethnicity? I see generations of people talking about ethnicity and how proud they are to be ???-American. How many generations will it take to have people in the US feel ethnic American?
When people come and ask me where I come from I tell them "I am from Chicago", this repsonse usually encourages further questions like: "No, what is your race/nationality?" If I have the time and energy I usually try to educate them and teach them that ethnically I am American. My nationality is American (specifically U.S.A.) and My race is white. I grew up in Chicago and Puerto Rico oblivious to all this ethnic disctinction, however as I reach forty three and become consious of these "burning" social issues my awareness encourages me to challenge these so called accepted ethnicities and fight for my American Ethnicity.
Genealogist encourage people to go back and lookup their lineage? But, how far do you go? Do you accept ten generations as your lineage? How about twenty? If you go back far enought you will obviously find that your ancestry is from Africa (for those who believe in evolution) or that your ancestry comes from Adam and Eve (if you believe in creationism). So am I supposed to accept that you are ???-American even when you don't speak ??? language, rarely follow any of the customs if you follow them at all, and you grew up watching Howdy Doody, Scooby doo or the Brady bunch ?
I am sorry if you can't be proud enough to be Ethnic American, I am!