http://www.indystar.com/article/20100220/LOCAL/2200369/Chance-meeting-reveals-2-Hoosiers-ties-to-slavery (http://www.indystar.com/article/20100220/LOCAL/2200369/Chance-meeting-reveals-2-Hoosiers-ties-to-slavery)
This is a bit lengthy, but I found it really interesting to read through. It is about a woman who by pure chance, meets a Muslim man at a church function and through a seemingly innocuous comment during their introduction discovers that their family histories are deeply intertwined.
While an eye opener for both parties, it makes one wonder just how many times each of us have had a similar opportunity for discovery but let it pass us by.
While working for a company in Chicago years ago, we had a high level official for one of our customers take up residence in the plant to over see a promotional run we were doing for McDonalds. (Yeah, the monopoly game. We made the BIG winners by applying the winning game pieces at random).
I had worked with this man for several weeks, and upon first meeting him I recall his last name ringing bells and whistles in my head, but never said anything to him about it. We spent a lot of long hours working together and one day I was grabbing a quick lunch in the cafeteria and he came in and sat down with me.
As we had lunch we spoke about a lot of meaningless topics which most folks use to pass the time, and then the opportunity presented itself for me to mention to him that his last name was one very prevalent in my family tree. I asked him if he had ever heard of a very small and obscure town in the middle of the mountains, and the look of shock that crossed his face gave me my answer before he could say yes.
He then asked the name of my great grandfather, and when I told him you could have knocked him over with a feather. His eyes got wider as I told him who my great-great grandfather was, and then he began running through a list of his relatives that I also knew. We were distant cousins that had never before met in our lives, but knew of each other. :biggrin:
I thought that was surreal until I read this story. . .
Wow, what a story. Not th efirst of this type I have read, but a very good one indeed.
I ran into a girl at the bank the other day who has my last name. She tells me her husband's family was originally from Virginia. I told her we were likely related, as my family came out of that same area. I also know there is a good chance that some of my ancestors may have been slave owners. I know there are quite a gew black families with our name. I think many of us have simialr backgrounds, but whether we discover it or not is the big question.
Yeah I am sure that is true, proving most of us are either in denial or liars; or both! :spooked: