The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1898-04-23
THE FAMILY TREE
Who Were My Ancestors~
Seems to Be the Question
Of the Hour.

In these days os Colonial Dames.
Daughters os the American Revolution
and various other societies that arc
branches OF forest OF family trees the
study Of genealogy is an interesting
one. "Who were were my ancestors?'
seems to be the question OF the hour In
America.
The Aryan coIonists left their ancient
horne in India and spread over the con-
tinent OF Europe In many diverging
streams. Centuries passed. Some OF
the streams united In the northeastern
part 20 form river. The brave Briton.
the hery Celt, the versatile Caul. the
slow but steady Tsuton, the daring pi-
ratical Norseman--aI! these combined
to make the mighty river OF whose on.
flowing waters we are proud to form, a
part. what part?" do we ask. We
certainly cannot be molecules, being
visible to the eye and OF some trifiing
Importance in our own eyes. We must
at least be drops. large sized drops. OF
course, In this Anglo-Saxon- -Nerman-
American genealogical river.
or the same Aryan or Indo- European
stock We're the polished Roman and the
barbarian Briton. Do we like to realize
~
man, spotted, variegated man? C@-
sar says the ancient Britons stained
themselves blue before entering battle;
also that 10 or II OF them had their
wives in common. We know that hu-
man victims were offered on their al
tars.
Some 500 years later ST. Augustine
and 40 others-bless their memories
came on foreign mission to carry
Christianity to the fair haired people
of Angleland. 1t was 200 years after the
time OF Alfred the Great. Saxon, before
surnames were known In England, and
they were not at all common until the
fourteenth century. So that 1t Is rarely
possible TO trace our family lives far
ther back than 700 or 500 years. 1t IL
| interesting that some Welsh families
claim lineage among the noble Romans.
| also that few French families assume
| to trace their lines to Noah. But with
out doubt the oldest recorded family OH
| the globe Is that of the mikado OF Japan.
whose lineage has been carefully kept
for 25 centuries. Some Of our American
forbears thought It undemocratc to
have an ancestor. Abraham Lincoln
said, and am sure we should all be In
sympathy with the sentiment, II do not
know my grandfather's name, and I
am more concerned to know what his
grandson is going to make Of himself
The study of genealogy. pursued In q
liberal spirit, brings all Americans into
sympathetic bonds. AS we climb our
family tree we find so many other per-
sons ancestors sitting among the
boughs. Our Ebenezer, John or Daniel
who came over at an early period
proves to be also the ancestor Of per-
haps 1000 other living persons. In fact,
we find our genealogical tree a network
OF grating, wondrously interviewer by
the intermarriages Of many generations
AS we grow older we have to deal In
ourselves with the influences of our
education, perhaps even more with those
of blood and breed. Will 1t not profit US
to study them? AS we learn the histories
of those before US at the life loom will
II not stimulate us to do our best In
weaving the web Of our lives?
Let us take our ancestral heroes out
of the obscure past and place them In
household inches where their memory
can be kept green and their deeds re
hearsed to fire our own hearts and tn
hearts of the children.