The Ancestral Search
By Samantha Bradley
How many of you are aware that Ancestor Appreciation Day will be here on September 27th? This seems an excellent time to pay homage to those who came before you by discovering who those ancestors are, whether you be Muggle or magical. In fact, I'd like to tell you some ways to do just that, no matter which side of the wizarding world you happen to be on.
If you are a Muggle, it's pretty easy to discover your heritage. The internet is a wonderful source for this type of information, and I would highly recommend the site called Ancestry.com. Tracing the trail backwards is fairly simple as you can find birth records and information from all over the world, not just the U.S. and U.K. If you have this information for both your parents, then you're off and you might be surprised at some of the things you discover. You might even find that you have famous relatives in your family tree! They provide an area on their site where you can keep your personal family tree and fill in all the information you discover with plenty of room for information and pictures. You can also take a DNA test and discover what your roots are going back a thousand years, and this is extremely fascinating! They don't need blood for this test, just a little of your spit, so it's very simple and painless. There is also a specialized test in case there is any reason to suspect that you might have Viking, Anglo-Saxon or Norman blood (any of which could make you very special).
Of course there is no internet if you are magical, but fortunately the wizarding folk do a much better job of record keeping as a whole than the Muggles do so you should be able to find your family information fairly easily if you don't know it already. Again, if you've never made the effort to find out then you, too, could be in for some shocking discoveries. Imagine finding out you are descended from one of the Four Founders? It could happen, you just never know!
Discovering who you are and where you came from is an honor in itself to your ancestors, and I'm sure they are looking down and saying how proud they are of you for having done this. It's always important to know where you came from, and this is the perfect time to do it. You might even be moved to write a book about your discoveries, who knows? What if it were to become a bestseller? Trust me, the sky is the limit what you can do with your knowledge so never give up the search. An exciting journey lies ahead of you, and it's going to be very exciting and rewarding no matter what you discover!