Das Land meiner Forbearers

Like most Americans, I'm a mutt.  When I fill out the ethnicity section on a form, I'm always disappointed to discover that there's not a box for Danish, Scots-Irish, German, Welsh, French, Native American.  But rather than checking "other" and writing in the above, I usually just settle for white or Caucasian.  Of course, I may be something else as well, that's just the ancestry that I'm aware of.  One of these days I hope to find out what other kinds of DNA may be floating around in my gene pool.  In the meantime I have the goal of at least visiting the known homelands of my forefathers and mothers.  So far I can check off the USA (that was easy), Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and France (if you count hanging out in the Paris airport for a couple of hours - we did actually walk out on the tarmac before boarding our plane).  After this week, I'll be able to check off Germany too. 

The Hutson, Karnes, and Smith families are headed down to Rothenburg for the Euro-American church retreat.  Phil Jackson of Missions Resource Network will be speaking, while Keith Lancaster will be leading our time in worship.  I doubt I'll be seeing many sights that my ancestors would have seen as Jakobsweiler where they were from is over an hour and 1/2 from where we'll be, but it will be nice to be in the vicinity anyway.  Then in 2011, I can start thinking about heading to Denmark, the birthplace of my grandmother, Augusta Jensen.  Six down, one to go! - Shay