History from a Different Perspective

Identity. For some, the concept is simple. For me, because of the accident of my birth, identity has long been complex and circuitous.

Judy Ball, daughter of Clyde and Nellie. Judy Ball, descendant of Shirley, daughter of Dorothy and John.

Clyde and Nellie, you see, adopted me.  At birth.  Brought me home from the hospital.  My mother, who had not one sentimental bone, kept the hospital bill and payment receipts.  I have never had a single question about who my parents were:  Clyde and Nellie.

But ancestors are another thing entirely.  My concept of ancestors does not track with the ancestors of Clyde and Nellie.  Perhaps this is because of their lack of connection to families of origin.  Perhaps there is some other reason.

As a child, I had a difficult time sorting out whether I was American or Canadian.  My birth mother, Shirley, was Canadian.  Why wasn't I Canadian, I would ask?  No one ever gave me the legal answer: you are American because you were born in the USA.  On my first visit to Canada (I was in my thirties), I had an unusual sense of coming home.

Now, thanks to the miracles of Internet technology, DNA testing, an LDS family history center, and genealogical websites such as ancestry.com, I have been able to take a self indulgent virtual journey to meet my ancestors.

I have learned that my DNA reads plain vanilla, 58% western Europe (the boundaries have changed too often over time to be more specific) and 39% Irish.  Western Europe, in my case, is the Netherlands.  I've found ancestors all the way back to the 16th century in the Netherlands, and then they emigrated to New Amsterdam or New York.  How cool is that?

I have also found proof among my own ancestors of how history is indeed written by the victors.

American history teaches us about revolutionary "patriots" who fought for "liberty" and "freedom" while "tories" remained loyal to a tyrannical king.

There is a different story to be told.

My ancestors include "loyalists" who had their property seized (without due process), were tormented and jailed because of their beliefs (no free expression permitted), and ultimately were forced to flee their homes in New York in search of sanctuary in Canada.  Loyalty and dedication to principle runs deeply in my DNA.  This makes me proud.

The loyalists formed a large and important core of pioneers that founded what is now southern Ontario and Quebec.  Their ethos, which favored evolution over revolution, helped make Canada the largely admirable nation it is today.

The US, on the other hand, was born in war:  civil war, if you call a spade a spade.  It tried and failed to resolve its internal differences, which led inevitably to another civil war.  And now the US continues to be divided, largely over the same issues, and violence is as much a part of US culture as hot dogs and baseball.  Even our national anthem is a paean about war.

Isn't it interesting to look at history from a different perspective?