REVISITING HENRY LOUIS GATES JR. and FINDING YOUR ROOTS

PBS HENRY LOUIS GATES JR. FINDING YOUR ROOTS

I'm rewatching beginning with Season One.  LOUIS HENRY GATES Jr., who I respect, says that about ten percent of contemporary Black Americans have ancestors who were Free Persons of Color - not slaves.

I had one client whose New Orleans heritage took us to Free Persons of Color ancestors.  The reaction was a subtle disbelief at my research, as I showed them that their people had been part of a thriving crafts and tradesman community in which people lived in beautiful houses - some on tours today.

Who is or is not Black?

What is the difference between the White actress who most relates to her most recent Jewish heritage though she's got White Anglo Saxon heritage that goes back to King Henry the First of England, basically "feeling" herself Jewish" and someone whose appearance would not lead the average person to guess they have Black Heritage or someone whose DNA proves they are just a little bit African, but who most relates to contemporary Black culture?

In genealogy we search for documents.

But people often feel themselves to be most comfortable with one culture - including religion and spirituality - over another.  I sometimes think this has to do with past life memories, which I realize is controversial.  But through reincarnation we can experience what it is to live in different cultures, to be Japanese in the 14th century, or to have fought in the Civil War in this country for the Confederates.

As a result of reading hundreds if not thousands of documents as well as reading around American history,  and my belief that reincarnation is real, I may have a different feeling about my own life and that of others.

We must ask ourselves WHY are we here in this life?  What have we brought forward from the past, what have we learned, where do we want to go?


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