enealogy
is an interesting subject.
Unfortunately, I didn't become interested in my family's history until my Grandmother died. She had a great memory and could recall dozens of names and events. My Grandfather in his day, was quite the knowledge mill too-- but Alzheimer's put a stop to that. Once in a while though, he came up with some great leads on his ancestors.
mith.
Now there's a shitty name to have to look up. They're
like bellybuttons-- everyone's got one. It turns out
that my Smith line came from Iowa. The furthest back
we go is to James A. Smith, who married a gal named
Adeline Rudd from Shawneetown, Illinois. There are so
many resources on the web, so I found a researcher in
Keokuk, Iowa (the town where they married) and she
agreed to take a look at the census for me.
In the 1800's (around the time of the civil war), Census-takers would show up at your door and ask for names; head of household, wife, children and ages. They sometimes asked where they originally came from. Then they would look at them and determine their race.
"The 1850 census shows your family as living in Jefferson county and that they were listed as Mulattos."
Mick: "There must be some mistake-- my family is white."
I could almost picture the lady's smile stretching across her face as she read my email. It wouldn't be the first time that a family discovers that they aren't as lily-white as they thought. I bet she lives for these moments.
My mother remembers talking to her
Grandfather (Sales Mortimer Smith) and asking him why
he was so dark. "I had a Spanish Grandmother."
My Great-Grandfather must have known the truth-- I find it sad that he chose to lie about it.
What's wrong with being black? One of my cousins erupted in a fury when he found out.
I wouldn't be typing this article right now if a 'man of color' hadn't trudged through snow drifts, pulled us out of our stuck VW and taken us into his home. We would have frozen to death out there in the dead of night. I was just a baby then, but I'm an adult now and eternally grateful. I wish I knew his name, so I can properly thank him.
My grandfather abhorred racism and raised his daughters to hate it as well. I grew up my final years in the 'redneck central' of Florida-- Fort Myers. There wasn't a lot of love between the rednecky whites and immigrants of all flavors. I couldn't stand living amongst those fools who only had time to make comparisons and hate.
I also grew up partly a military brat-- all colors and creeds mixed together. Not an entirely bad way to discover the world if you ask me.
Just because the 1850 census lists our Smiths as Mulattos, it doesn't mean that they came from Africa. There's many other countries where the inhabitants have dark skin. I do hope that they did come from Africa-- it's meaningful to me that I grew up just the same, from families that knew what racism was about and refused to practice it.
The United States worst moments of history was the mistreatment of people based on color. Abraham Lincoln had an uphill battle to overturn slavery. Imagine never having to perform physical labor (other than whipping your slaves)? It must have sounded insane for the south to give up such a good thing. Still, greater minds prevailed and the United States became free. It was still a bumpy ride for others who are still feeling the repercussions of racism.
I don't like to use the term 'minorities' as it sounds less than 'American'. I don't like the terms "African-American" or "Italian-American" either-- it seems like they want to be different or to pertain to an exclusive category.
America is great today because it is made up of all other countries that come together under the same ideal. To have freedom-- true freedom, and carve out your life's dream out of opportunity.
My children are Americans, but they also have Spanish passports-- that's purely so that they can take advantage of being EU citizens. Erin will get discounted schooling in the UK because of that. She chose Newcastle University which is very cosmopolitan. There's kids from all over the world there-- I really envy her. She is very inquisitive-- I hope she enjoys sharing family backgrounds with her new friends and discovers interesting stories. She already has some from our side of the family-- especially how the Federal Government referred to our family as black in the 1800's.
I'm proud of my family and the humble roots that we came from. Skin color truly means nothing, but I will always wear it with family pride.