Our roots

I become very interested in tracing my roots a few years back around Samhain. I contacted my Aunt (on my mom's side) who had done a family tree for my grandparents and she sent me all the information she had. I was excited and pleased to see that she had traced our family back to Adam and Janty Klaasen. They had come to America from Prussia, Germany in the early 1850's. Because they had settled and stayed in the same place, as did all the generations since then, It was easy to do the family tree. It also helped that they were fairly new immigrants. I was able to do tombstone rubbings of these two brave people who took tempted fate and took a chance at building a life in a world that was strange and unfamiliar to them.

Tracing my father's roots has been a bit more challenging. I am not in contact with any of his relatives and therefore cannot pick their brains for information. My surname Searle is very English and the last generation I can trace came from Canada. He remembers that his grandmother was Cherokee Indian but since his mother didn't get along with her he doesn't have a whole lot of information about her besides a name. Both of my grandparents on my father's side have passed.

It's fascinating and exciting when you get a clue about where you come from. It's not something I thought a lot about while growing up. It was more about immediate family. I still think immediate family is important but since I've started studying the various Pagan traditions I've had a craving for more information. I want to know where I come from so I can include that in my Spiritual path.