Most of the women on my matrilineal side share the hobby of doing extensive research in family history. Like tracing the family tree back to the 1500s level. It’s kinda cool being able to have a cohesive story of where my family has been and what they’ve done or been through. It still seems kinda….feudal adjacent in a sense.
Idk my lefty self-crit sense is tingling. What’s the line on this? Obviously there is a great deal of white privilege in even being able to, but often enough privilege seems to be something everyone should have rather than nobody having it. Thoughts?
Almost all Western Europeans likely are, just like they're all descended from Charlemagne. The work just shows how you're descended from them. And of course going that far back is always iffy.
My thoughts exactly. Which is why I don't see it as anything more than a cool little bit of trivia to drop when people ask me questions about myself and my family.