So long as you don’t take the bait for a “confidential” DNA-based history upgrade, a few hours spent on sites like Ancestry.com can produce some amazing results.
Not only did I get a popup suggesting I was ethnically eligible for the “Liberian Restitution Endowment”, but also some genuinely heartwarming historical tidbits.
This is my Scottish high-bred great-grandma “Granny” and my German salt-of-the earth great-grandfather “Opa”.
They met post WWI while she was teaching english in a small village school in Germany which was part of a Wandervögel/peacenik communal experiment in voluntary communal living and pooled resources.
Targeted by the mandatory installation of Nazi teachers in the late 30’s, they were both given the choice to leave Germany or be interned.
They re-settled in England and on their wedding day, they received this telegram from their forlorn German students.
It was reprinted on their wedding flyer:
To H, England (full stop):
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Smurfing the New Normal to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.