Originally published: 3/8/2014 | 7:55pm
When you take a survey that is heavily based on your personality, what is the common question that most people dread answering? Well, if you haven’t guessed the answer yet, it is “How would you best describe yourself?” This may also appear in the similar form of, “What/Which of these do you best identify yourself with?” A sense of panic and fear quickly comes over you as you consider the best possible answer. Suddenly, you are remembering every single thing family, friends, and other have said about you. When I see these questions, I don’t panic. In fact, I am able to easily answer the question because I allow my history to define who I am. My identity has a direct correlation with how I identify myself, and it does the same for others, too.
Lately, I have found myself filling out information cards for various colleges around the country with many asking about ethnicity, some allowing me to list multiple heritage lines. When given the opportunity to choose more than one option, I select: African American, French, Irish, and Native American. Of course, you would never guess that about my bloodline just by looking at me. However, my parents take on genealogy (the study of family ancestries and histories) as a hobby and have never hesitated to remind me of my background. I may not immediately come across as all of those ethnicities just from glancing at me, but they are the reason why I look the way I do. My parents wanted to be able to tell me about who I really am, which is a descendant of my ancestors. But even more, my parents wanted to instill in me the idea that I am more than the label “African American”.
For the last five years, I had noticed that my cheekbones didn’t resemble anyone else’s in close relation to me. Just a few months ago, my dad found a picture of my great-great grandmother. That was when I realized where my unique cheekbones came from. A recessive gene from my dad, I now feel as though I know myself better with discovering something about me that most people wouldn’t find nearly as fascinating. My parents’ will to find out all of our family history had answered an important, life-altering question for me. I suddenly felt like I could tell anybody about my background because I had finally found out how to identify myself. Genealogy has not only done this for me, but other people as well. Yes, including celebrities!
A couple of years ago, I remember watching the show Who Do You Think You Are?. The featured celebrity was none other than Rashida Jones, whom just by looking at you can instantly sense that she has a unique heritage. Though she has always admitted having black and Jewish roots, she didn’t know very much about her Jewish background. The genealogist on the show suggested they take a trip to Europe after discovering her existence came to be because one of her ancestors had escaped the horrible events of the Holocaust. They had to spend several days in Poland searching several libraries and historic buildings in Poland questioning people about any information they had on her ancestor. However, each person could only come up with information for people with similar names to Jones’s relative. What Jones and the genealogist were able to conclude from the trip was that her ancestor altered his name as he was on the run. At this point, Rashida Jones was crying. She felt as though the part of her identity that wasn’t exactly complete had finally been fulfilled. Jones had not only found out more about her heritage, but she learned about her existence in the world.
Though it wasn’t the parents of Rashida Jones that helped her use family history to make a self-fulfilling identity for herself, she did end up with the same conclusion as I did. History does make up your person. You could never have showed up on this planet had it not been for whatever had gone on in the past. I like to think that everything happens for a reason. There is a reason why I look the way I do, and the same goes for everyone else. There is also a story describing how a family bloodline even stays alive, like in the case of Rashida Jones. There is an answer to all of our identity questions, but we have to look at our history to get a good answer. Now, maybe those identity and self-description questions won’t be as hard to answer anymore. Until next time, good luck on any self-discovery adventures you may have!
