Today is the beginning of the international genealogy conference known as Roots Tech. I am super excited.
I began my virtual conference experience watching the 16-minute keynote by Ndaba Thembekile Mandela, the grandson of Nelson Mandela. In this vignette, he shares some of what he learned from his inspiring grandfather, including the need to honour your ancestors’ journeys as part of your own identity.
This is so inspiring to me. While our circumstances and environment clearly affect who we are, we are only beginning to understand that our identities have also been influenced by the struggles of our ancestors, whether through natural selection, through changes in our DA, or through other processes not yet well understood.
For the next five days, people around the world are going to be learning how to study their family history, research their genealogy and tell stories about their ancestors.
Since those of us who do not know our own history are doomed to repeat it, I’m looking forward to figuring out how my ancestors’ struggles can help me grow in my own lifetime.
