Last week it was all the rage by my fellow Geneabloggers to create color-coded ancestral birthplace charts. I finally got around to doing mine. What I noticed primarily are two things --
First, mine is a lot less uniformed and more colorful than most everyone else's. As someone who prizes roots, I don't think that is a good thing. My ancestors it seems were always moving. Other bloggers noted that anomalies in colors/places on a chart might be caused by a person not living where they were born. But that is not my case at all. My family was indeed on the move out of state with almost every generation.
Second, it is now very easy to see how I could move back here to Illinois and discover deep roots from both sides of my family. That would not be possible anywhere else within the illustrated generations except in Pennsylvania, and even then it would be on a much smaller scale.
I still consider Nebraska my ancestral home although I have never lived there, I have so many Walker relatives who still do. I imagine if my mother's family had come straight from Kansas to California, my affection would be just as strong for Kansas.
My father and both his parents called Nebraska home. My mom's mother called Kansas as home, my mom's father said the same of Arizona, and my mom considered California home.
Top State Relationships to Me
100% California
100% Nebraska
75% Illinois
62.5% Kansas
50% Arizona
all others below fifty percent
Very interesting and enjoyable exercise. I hope ideas for similar exercises come forward.
Copyright © 2016 by Kevin W. Walker
No comments:
Post a Comment