Manakin Town, outside Richmond. Some later moved up to Loudoun County, but I haven’t researched the specifics (need something to do during retirement). I found a cemetery outside of Leesburg that is full of people with family names.
No, just a thorough amateur genealogist.
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Not to be confused with this Black Sabboth cover, which includes an uncredited (label issues) Trent Reznor:
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I merely meant that whether one’s ancestors came on the Mayflower or later is mostly irrelevant. It’s a nice bit if history if they did but in the grand scheme of things is irrelevant.
I have ancestors that fought in The Revolutionary War. I also have ancestors that appear to be loyalists because they moved from NY to Canada around the time of the war. Back to NY then back to Canada around 1812.
My father’s ancestors came from Germany in the late 1800’s so no slavery in his past. Does that mean that he doesn’t share in America’s history of slavery but I do because I likely have slave owning ancestors on my mother’s side?
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My maternal grandmother was a Mayflower descendant. When someone would compliment her on this, she’d respond “If you dig deep enough you’ll hit dirt” 
I loved her dearly 
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I think we’re in agreement. The person who became a naturalized citizen of the U.S. only yesterday assumes not only the rights and privileges of citizenship but also the burdens of our history and the responsibility to address injustices neither they nor their ancestors had any role in perpetrating. Just as do those of us who were born here as citizens, no matter when our ancestors arrived here.
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And to @mch 's point, it is a privilege for White Americans to be able to trace that ancestry. For our neighbors who’s ancestors were enslaved and marked down on census records without names, they don’t have this privilege. Or at least few do and it is much harder.
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Henry Louis Gates’ show, Roots, has sometimes been able to trace one line in a Black person’s family tree to a slave or slaves whose name(s) was provided in a document, usually a will, or by drawing reasonable inferences from the sex and age of a person (or persons) on a slave schedule, in concert with other data. It’s very moving when that happens.
On a recent show, Gates asked an actress how it felt to learn about long lines of ancestors. Her response: “Gratitude” to all the people to whom she owed her very existence. That’s the feeling my research into my own ancestry has given me.
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That is the show I was thinking of when I wrote the last line. I enjoy watching it for all of the stories they are able tell.
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I would term it a right and not a privilege.
Where in the world did you hear that?!? Oh, don’t tell me, the Internet, right? Sheesh!
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It’s not strictly math. It’s Koyaanisqatsi.
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I preferred
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I have no idea what that is.
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Or Oklahoma or Nebraska or anywhere on Tornado Alley.
If you didn’t read “The Three Little Pigs” and didn’t build a brick house, screw you!
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A few things do bother me about the show, much as I enjoy it and learn from it.
For instance, the way only two or three family lines are followed, I assume because either some lines dead end or just don’t go to places like “Your x-great grandfather fought in the Revolution.” The line that leads to a colorful story is highlighted, but what about all those other x-great grandparents?
The show has a formula. Okay. But Gates asks a question like, “How does this help you to understand yourself,” a set-up to elicit answers like, “One of my [many!] 4th great grandmothers [none of whom I previously had any idea existed, and still don’t, because you haven’t mentioned they might have existed] was an artist, and I’m an artist, so that’s where my artistry comes from!” Often (not always!) a lot of nonsense. It takes a great deal more research to determine possible inheritance of traits and proclivities.
Still, I love the show.
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That’s right, and the most important thing he accomplished during the Revolutionary War was to capture all those British air bases - broke their will to fight! 
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