Discovering My English Ancestry
I have written several blogs on discovering different parts of my ancestry. I have started to discover my Irish, Scottish, Scandinavian and Germanic history.
The next one that I am going on a journey to discover is my English Ancestry. It is difficult to really know where to start, after all our entire education system was written from the English point of view. What is out there that I don't know about?
England's history is very complex with many different eras. I have already learned many things throughout my studies in high school and college.
During the Stone Age, hunters and gatherers were able to cross by land from mainland Europe to Britain. They became farmers and began to build their puzzling stone monuments.
Here is something I disagree with now that I have awakened to a higher consciousness. I do not think the hunters and gatherers were the builders of these monuments. I think there were more advanced civilizations that contributed to this. That is a story for another blog.
After the Stone Age, the next Era to come to England is the Celts. The Celts were conquered by the Romans and ushered in the Roman Era. After the Romans withdraw from England, the Anglo-Saxons Era arrives. After the Anglo-Saxon era then the Vikings now bring raiding and pillaging to the British landscape. There are numerous eras that continue on after this.
We aren't finished with the eras of British history until we mention the royal families and the British empire.
For those of us growing up in the American education system and who have access to any type of media, all of these Eras are of no surprise and are well known.
While I know most of the history, I do not know what roles my ancestors played in those eras. I am going to have to study more about my ancestors to get to those details. But I am hesitant. I am hesitant about what I may find.
I have received some feedback from people that not everyone wants to know their ancestry. Not everyone wants to know who their ancestors were and what they did. Not everyone even knows who their ancestors are. Those are very valid points and I support them. Everyone has their own journey to make and they have to make those decisions on their journey.
I can understand the struggle. The reason the English Ancestry was one of my last to do is because it is the one that I am not sure I want to know.
When I was in college I was a history major. I was always reading, researching and studying something historical. I thought I knew most everything about World and American history. I thought I did, until I took a college English class.
My college English professor was very eccentric. He drew a railroad tunnel on the chalkboard on the first day of class and told us by the end of the semester he was going to run through it like the road runner. He would get to know his students, their history and their majors. He operated a small bookstore and had access to various books. He would bring students books from time to time that corresponded with their major. My turn finally came, he handed me a book, I looked down at it and it said "A People's History of The United States, by Howard Zinn".
I took that book home and read it front to back. My English teacher had given me a book that showed me that I knew nothing about the history of the world or the America's. I was programmed to the illusion of what the history was, not the actual history. This book was written from the viewpoint of the people you do not know about in the history books. This book was written from the viewpoint of the people dominated by British colonialism.
Knowing the effects of the Colonialism of the British empire on indigenous and other cultures around the globe, it makes it difficult for me to want to know that part of my ancestry. After all, some of the cultures of my other ancestors were eradicated, imprisoned, slaughtered, enslaved, and ridiculed by the British Empire. How can I honor those ancestors if I explore my English Ancestry?
I had that question, and I know the answer.
I go back to my statements in many other blogs, I can't know who I am, if I don't know where I came from.
When we do a self examination of ourselves and our lives, there are many things we don't like about it. That same principle applies to our ancestry. We may not like that part of our ancestry, but we still must understand it.
In order to heal physically, we have to deal with the causes of the sickness. We have to find out what those causes are, and eliminate them and put preventative measures in place to keep them from happening again.
Ancestral Healing is no different. We have to figure out the causes of the generational wrongs and fix them and put preventative measures in place so that they don't happen again.
Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone gets caught up in something that when they look back on it they wish they hadn't done. Our Ancestors were no different.
So Yes, I do need to explore my English Ancestry. I need to see my ancestors for the humans they were. I need to learn from their mistakes, figure out what caused them to go wrong and put preventative measures in place to bring generational healing.
But it doesn't end there. That generational healing in turn will bring healing to the Earth and make the world a better place to live.
We have had enough empires. We have had enough colonialism. We have had enough Kings, Queens and Monarchs. We have had enough eradication. We have had enough discrimination and enslavement. It is time to put a stop to it. It is time to bring healing to it. It is time to live together peacefully celebrating each other's differences.
I will discover my English ancestry.
What about you? Are you ready for peace and healing ?
Join me, Journey with me. Let's heal and change the world together.
Blessings
By Michael Walters
The Ancestor's Fire
Writing the voices of the unheard
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