In a message dated 3/8/05 11:30:44 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, Aug67@cox.net writes: > > I too am ashamed of some of America's history. I am not ashamed of any of America's history. To start with, I was not there, so I have nothing to be ashamed of. Bad things happened, and bad things still happen today. I can't imagine some of the things people went through back then, but for every bad thing that is brought up as history, I believe that, like today, we only hear the bad part. The ones that were "newsworthy" according to the media of the time. A hundred years from now, we may be looked at as being just as bad as the things we look at in our history. But the only things they will really know about are the wars we were in, and the stories that hit the newspaper. It's part of why I love genealogy. Everyone in my family always thought that my gr-grandmother was just a nasty old lady. One day I asked my aunt if there wasn't anything good about her, and my aunt said no, at first. Once she started thinking about it, she came up with several stories that changed a lot of my thinking about her. As I searched for information in records for her, I found out things that nobody had ever considered. She left her home in Ireland, left behind her parents and some siblings. She came here with her new husband, who was a sailor on the lakes. They came to western New York, instead of where some of her sisters were, in New Jersey, so he had work.. So, here she is, alone for months at a time, in a new place where there are many kinds of people, from many different countries with other traditions and ideas, because he is out on the lakes all the time. Then, in a few short years, he died of pneumonia, leaving her with one toddler and 8 months pregnant. This was 1899. Can you imagine her life at that time? There wasn't any social security, or health insurance. Because of what life was like in Ireland, where they did help you out, but took everything you owned to pay for it, she was terrified of taking anything that even looked like charity. So, she ran a boarding house. Having seen the house, and knowing things I've read about how hard it was, it makes it very understandable to see the person she became. I can't even believe a family of three lived in it, no less boarders. But I find her in the censuses as running a boarding house, with several other people living in the house. This is the person I heard about all my life: She had money, but wouldn't lend a dime to anyone, even if they had real need. If you made a silly mistake, she became very nasty, and acted like it was the end of the world. ( a "silly" mistake like dropping a sugar bowl full of sugar) She was known to go after my uncles with a broom, when they came home late. Basically nothing but a self-righteous termagant. For Christmas all she ever gave them was an orange and some hard candy, even though she had lots of money. Those were the only stories I had ever heard of her. Do you see the difference in my perspective of her now? So, I can't be "ashamed" of anything in history. I wasn't there, and I have no real idea why things happened. Had I been there, I would hope I would have done things differently, if I'd even had the ability to change anything. Kathy