After quite a bit of thought on potential objects that carried sentimental/spiritual value in my family, I had nothing. Asking my parents if they had anything from their grandparents also turned up negative. I realized that I really didn’t have anything or know much at all about my heritage besides that it was of European origin. However, recently my uncle on my mom’s side decided to trace our family roots back as far as possible, and what he found was very interesting! He was able to trace our family back to John White Sr, who immigrated from England to the Jamestown colony in Virginia in 1639 as a child and eventually became quite well known in it. My family remained in Virginia all the way down the line until my great grandfather. Since there isn’t an object that exemplifies this, all I could think of doing was showing the names of my family members that were traced; Hallet Bascom White Jr on the list is my grandfather. I had no idea that my family had been in America so long, so this was very cool to find out and it made me think about my past more. Before it, I generally thought of my family in the present, and my immediate family at that. The list, not only my direct ancestors, but the sheer volume of people living today that are descended from John White Sr, made me realize how more people are connected than it might seem on the surface.

– WR.

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more