The third season of NBC’s wildly popular Who Do You Think You Are continues to intrigue fans and spark wishful imaginations among those of us in the genealogical trenches. Who wouldn’t give up their family Bible for the opportunity to have professional researchers meticulously trace an ancestor back several generations. And to visit his ancestral home. And, especially, to handle the fading, yellowed documents that prove his existence (with a perfect translation, of course!)
Family history is mainstream now, and thousands are joining the movement to discover their past and secure a hold on their family roots. They truly want to know who they are, not dabble in who they think they are.
“In all of us there is a hunger, marrow-deep, to know our heritage – to know who we are and where we have come from. Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning. No matter what our attainments in life, there is still a vacuum, an emptiness, and the most disquieting loneliness.” (Alex Haley, author of Roots).
Loneliness used to be synonymous with genealogy. We all have mental images of the “lone ranger researcher,” patiently reading thick volumes of names, tirelessly rewinding countless rolls of microfilm, laboriously handwriting every shred of information into an oversized Book of Remembrance.
No more. The RootsTech conference in Salt Lake City earlier this month dangled tantalizing tidbits of today’s techniques and tomorrow’s promises: collaboration among companies to get the worlds’ records digitized and uploaded; collaboration among researchers to compare and verify data; more accurate technological innovations such as improved OCR handwriting recognition software to read those old documents, smartphone and tablet apps to access and submit newly found data to and from online trees, and a host of other truly exciting products that enhance family history research. It’s all about us and for us, the end-users. It’s all to help us know who we are.
So, who do I know I am?
- I am descended from generations of strong, hardworking and humble people who tended sheep, rode donkeys, and worked the rocky soil of the Peloponnese.
- I am descended from a people who prize family relationships and family honor above all else.
- I am the granddaughter of a woman who was a pioneer in her time; advocating for women’s rights in a strict patriarchal society; stepping in to salvage a family business in time of distress; maintaining her family in a country whose language she couldn’t speak after the early death of her husband.
- I am the granddaughter of a man who prized honesty. As an impoverished youth, he turned over to his employer gold coins that he found in a pile of hay. Impressed with his integrity, the employer paid my grandfather’s passage to America.
- I am the daughter of “goodly parents” who believed in me and my potential.
- I am a daughter of God who knows my potential, has given me a work to do and opportunities to help and bless others during my time on earth.
Would I want to be a guest on Who Do You Think You Are? Absolutely! But not to discover my identity, because I already know who I am. Do you?
Carol Kostakos Petranek is one of the Directors of the Washington DC Family History Center and a Volunteer at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
