Faces of America

I happen to come across this wonderful television program called "Faces of America" on PBS. Henry Louis Gates, The Harvard scholar turns to the latest tools of genealogy and genetics to explore the family histories of 12 renowned Americans. One of them was Stephen Colbert, I just love that guy. They were able to go back to the late 1600's for some of them which I found amazing!! Can you imagine finding out one of the your ancestors was an original founding father of the United States? I found myself yearning to know something, anything about my history. How long have my ancestors been in America and where did they come from? Did my one of my grandfathers fight in World War II, and was one of my great grandmother a Suffragette??

Unfortunately, I wouldn't know where to start and who to ask. I am adopted and not much is known about my background. My adoptive parents are Portuguese and I was raised with many of the traditions and learned about the food , music and how my grandparents came from Portugal. While that is all very dear to me, and I will always cherish those memories, it's not really my heritage. I really don't think about being adopted too much because it was at birth and it's always been part of the story of how I came to be. My family is my family and I don't lack anything...except. Where I came from. I really don't have a desire to meet my birth parents. They did what was best for me at the time of my birth. If they wanted to ever meet me, I figure they would have by now. I just really want to know about my background, my ancestry, my roots. I feel like a little piece of me is missing sometimes when I think about it, or when I see a show like this, or see a heritage scrapbook page.

Maybe someday I will do something about it. Funny enough, my husband is adopted as well. So my daughter is pretty much in the same boat that we are! Not sure if there would be a way of doing it, without disturbing my birth family. I'll have to look into it and get back to you.

If you have time, this is a great show and worth watching. Makes you think about all the wonderful, hardworking, amazing people that made our country so great.