El Segundo Author Fair  

Well this weekend was a non-faire weekend and honestly it was really nice. I didn't have to deal with petty people and their petty problems. I didn't have to keep track of my husband to make sure he took a nap, or made it to check-in on time. I got to sleep in and drink my coffee slowly and then take my time waking up.

Not that I didn't do anything at home mind you. I did laundry and weeded the back garden. Cleaned up the side of the house and put everything away after they took the stuff out to faire, but didn't have time to put the stuff back that belonged there. I cleaned the kitchen and finished a newsletter article. I did some dusting and finally on Sunday I was able to revise my third book quickly since a publisher actually decided they wanted to see the whole bloomin thing.

Now mind you I had sent it off to a friend for editing 2 years ago. That was only partially done because she welcomed a new grandbaby. Then the file disappeared. So I knew that if I wanted to send it off, I needed to do at least a cursory read to make sure nothing to glaring was in there. I found one big one, which I adjusted pretty well, some minor phrasing that I thought could use some clean up, but lastly I sat on my butt and went through the whole damn thing from 10 am to 9 pm. Almost 12 full hours. I did get up here and there to visit the bathroom, clean up a hairball from my cat, eat, drink, and switch out the DVD's in my player. Movies that required no effort since I had watched them a million times. I had two cats near me and the dog slept nearby. It was a peaceful day.

Next week I have a party to attend, and maybe I'll go out Sunday...I kinda like my weekends at home putzing around.

Oh yeah...I sent the file off at 10 last night and got an e-mail this morning it was received. Whatever happens, happens. It will not be the end of my world if I get dumped. Actually it might be a relief...

“Who do you think you are?” can be taken in a number of contexts; it can be an insult or a question. For genealogists, it is the ultimate question.

Recently NBC released a series on genealogy using celebrities as their models under that title. Now this isn’t the article on the review of that, but actually taking that television show and relating it to my life.

I thought the premise a good one. It will help promote genealogy, genealogists and genealogical societies like SBCGS, but more important it has opened dialog in my home.

My husband always tunes me out when I talk about genealogy. He leaves that to his father and since my family has nothing to do with him it is all irrelevant. So when I started talking about the series on TV (we’re actually catching re-runs on Hulu.com) in the car the other evening, I was prepared for his deaf ears, but surprisingly my youngest daughter’s ears perked up, especially when I told her that Sarah Jessica Parker (who is a witch in one of her all time favorite movies “Hocus Pocus”) actually had something in common with us – she had an ancestor accused of witchcraft during the Salem hysteria.

Now she had already heard about the trials (her mother is a genealogist and history buff after all). I have basically beaten into all three of my kids their Salem/Beverly/Gloucester heritage: not only do we have an accused and an accuser, but also a juror who helped to convict many people. Thanks to the episode she had something to compare it to -to identify with.

I had already watched the episode, and since she wanted to watch it, I sat through it again. She was actually enthralled. She asked questions. She became engaged in something that I was interested in.  To my surprise she told me she wanted to watch another one. I suggested the Matthew Broderick episode with his Civil War ancestor buried in an unmarked grave for a hundred and fifty years. We talked about the war, the battles that divided a nation. I told her about places we had taken her sister and brother when they were small, places she expressed an interest in seeing herself. I t was fun…and the next night we moved on to the next episode.

As we watched together I realized that I finally had a child who cared, someone that both my father-in-law and I might actually be able to pass all this research – in time, money and years – to. She became someone who cared about her ancestors for who they were and how they related to the history around them.

So if anything, I think the show has opened doors previously closed, like Roots did almost 35 years ago. Just since this started airing, SBCGS was visited by the City of Torrance Cable station to promote our society and its library. Also a Japanese newspaper came to our March meetings to interview us and write an article on why we as Americans hunt for our ancestors instead of the information being passed down from generation to generation like the Japanese do.

“Who do you think you are?” use genealogy to find out, share it with your children, grandchildren and see what happens. We might finally be like the Japanese, passing our heritage on to our descendants, all the good, bad and ugly. It is their heritage after all. Isn’t it?