Amy Noblitt

In Search of Our Cultural Identity: Genealogy Searches into Our Past

I am a 26-year-old white woman of European decent and I am told that I am part of the dominant culture.  This makes me wonder, what is the dominant culture?  Is it our flag, our religions, our government or our media?  I try to answer these questions and I realize that I can’t.  What is our culture?  Minorities such as the Native Americans, African Americans, and Hispanics still have their own cultural identity.  Even some immigrants retain their cultural identity for a few generations, but those of us who are the assimilated masses lack a cultural identity.  Some would say we have an identity, but it is more “Blue Collar T.V.” rather than a rich culture of other countries.  This is why I think that many people who belong to the dominant culture search their genealogy for a clue to their cultural identity.

In a Google search I looked up “genealogy” and I found 27 similar websites to websites like Genealogy.com and Ancestry.com.  I am using Ancestry.com as an example because I have full access to its website because my mother bought a year subscription.  On these websites you are able search directories, census records, birth certificates, death certificates, military records, etc. But there are no slave records to search in, so for most African Americans they would be unable to search further back than 1860’s.  The countries listed on Ancestry.com are Austria, Canada, Channel Islands, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, United States and Wales.  All of these countries are predominately white cultures, in which the dominating culture in all of them is lead by white males.  Websites such as these focus on a predominately white culture of European descent.  I am able to track my paternal grandfather’s family to the 17^th century in Ustica, Sicily, and I am able to track my maternal grandmother’s family to the 18^th century in Nova Scotia, Canada.  What good does this do me, though?

Why do we care, why do we search for our ancestry?  I think it is because we are looking for our culture.  I know that I am ¼ Cajun French, ¼ Sicilian, 1/8 German, and the rest is Irish, and this is important to me because I don’t know what it means to be an American.  Is it to drink Coke, eat a hot dog, salute the flag and put a “Support Your Troops” magnetic ribbon on your car?  I’m not quite sure.  Many people pick one nationality that is dominant in their blood, and when someone asks, “What are you?” they say, “I’m Irish/French/Italian/Indian/Mexican/German/English?”  Not many people reply, “I’m an American.”  Or, most times, if they do say they are an American some other nationality precedes it.  Perhaps we never really assimilate or perhaps we are all obsessed with our heritage for different reasons. 

In an article from the New York Times called “Who's Your Great-Great-Great-Great-Granddaddy?” , Amy Harmon writes about genetic mapping that let people know if they are related to famous dead individuals.  One gentleman named Tom Robinson found out that he was related to Genghis Khan and another gentleman, Tom Bopp, found that he was related to Marie Antoinette.  Many people pay a few hundred dollars just to find out if they are some small relation to someone famous. 

Why do they do this, though?  Amy Harmon quotes Katherine Borges who says, “People want to connect.  And they don’t’ just want to connect to their fourth cousins or sixth cousins.”  Ms. Borges is correct we do all want to connect but I feel that it may be more than that.  We want to find our cultural identity.  Should Tom Robinson give up his life in Florida and move to Mongolia?  No, but now he knows more about his past and has a connection to a real culture.  The next question I need to ask is, why does it seem that Americans lack a real culture?  Perhaps the only true “American” culture is that of the Native Americans.  I guess that our dominant culture is more like a quilt that every country, immigrant and minority has sewn together their squares into a colorful calico masterpiece.  We all just want to know, which square is ours?