52 Ancestors Week 52: You

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 52
Week 52's theme is "You." I've often said that we need to remember that we are a part of our own family history. What do want future generations to know about you?

*record scratch* That's me...sitting in a restaurant
waiting for my burger.

The year 2019 is rapidly coming to a close and I look forward to Amy Johnson Crow's New 52. I know it'll be better received than DC Comics' New 52 from 2011! That was....a mess. But, you aren't here to listen to me ramble about DC's editorial mandates or other comic issues that make my head hurt. That's for my sister blog, Starbolt Productions to deal with. Even then I focused mainly on Marvel Comics over there.

Onto this week's prompt! Writing about myself has never really been my strongest suit. I'm always afraid I'll come off as bit egotistical or something. It's just how I am. I've gotten better at it with these blogs because they serve a purpose. You're writing about yourself in a different way with these entries. You're writing your family history and that's really about you and your family.

What do I want future generations to know about me, huh? Well, for starters they WILL come across this blog, eventually. There's no question about that. The Internet is forever. You may not think so, but, with Archive.org keeping track of all websites, you can bet that this site will be joining the archive some day. Unfortunately this means that websites like Hamsterdance will ALSO be on there. No, I'm not going to link it. It's just a bunch of gifs of hamsters dancing. What a waste of bandwidth.

Sites like WikiTree will also be archived.

I suppose that if the sites weren't easily accessible I would like future generations, like my nephews, to know the following things:

1. Genealogy at this point in time is very different from what you're probably used to. Less records are online and people still went to libraries. Shocking! Take advantage of what you can learn about your heritage and talk to your older relatives! A gold mine of info awaits! USE IT!

2. You have family still living in Italy. It'd be a great idea to contact them and learn all you can from them too. In my experience, they love hearing from their cousins in America. Contact them. You'd be glad you did. Trust me!

3. If you take a DNA test, don't be surprised by anything that comes your way. The Italian peninsula was populated by many, many people over the course of many centuries!

4. Speaking of DNA tests, Always go with the biggest database and as of 2019, Ancestry is still king of the proverbial hill.

5. Our family history isn't as clean-cut as you'd like it to be. Drama existed then just like it does now. Our ancestors were people like you and me and it's important to realize that because a part of them lives on in you. In order to best deal with it, just accept it as a fact of life and move on. That's really all you can do.

You're going to find drama. Hopefully, my blog will help you sort through it all.

Lastly, I would like future generations to know that family is whatever you make of it. Blood or not. If you are interested in looking up family history you should know that a lot of work went into finding all of this information. It's out there and as of December 2019 there's still more to to be discovered. You will likely find stuff I haven't found. Feel free to add it to the family history and make changes if they are needed. 

Genealogy now is different than genealogy of the future. To quote Howard Stark in the Iron Man movies "I'm limited by the technology of my time, but one day you'll figure this out. And when you do, you will change the world."

Who knows what will be discovered!

See you in 2020!