Believing that it's good to know something about where you came from and the forces helped shape you, I dabble a bit in genealogy. Here are just a few of the interesting ancestors I've found.
I come from a family of immigrants who came to this land for a better life. My maternal lineage is German (from southwestern Germany) and French Canadian (tracing from both northern and southwestern France); the French had begun arriving in Quebec in the 1660s; the Germans came in the 1850s. My paternal lineage is a real hodge-podge, with roots in [alphabetically] Armenia, Bulgaria, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland, and The Netherlands. My English, French and Dutch immigrant ancestors began arriving in America in the 1630s — only to eventually meet some of my non-immigrant ancestors (i.e. Native Americans) of the Lenape/Delaware, Mohican and Pequot peoples.
My ancestors were among the first settlers in Quebec and Montreal, Long Island and New York City, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey and Northern Pennsylvania.
They were soldiers in the King Philip's War (settlers versus Indians; settlers won), the Pequot war (same players; same result), French & Indian War, Revolutionary War (fighting on the side of the colonists), Civil War (fighting for the North), First World War, and Second World War.
The family tree is studded with royalty, including several kings of Armenia and Finland; some Khans of Bulgaria; Counts of Savoy, Flanders and Barcelona; a couple kings of England, including Alfred the Great and William the Conqueror; Kings Robert I and II of France, Berenger I and II of Italy, and Henry I of Germany; Viking rulers like Robert the Devil, Richard the Good, and Eystein Glumra the Noisy [what a great name!]; some Kings of Castile and Leon, including Sancho the Desirable, Ferdinand the Great, and Alfonso the Slobberer [another winning nickname]; and — oh yeah — two emperors, Charlemagne of the Holy Roman Empire, and Isaac I Comnenus of the Byzantine Empire.
Also counted among my ancestors are several saints, including Saint Isaac the Great, the patriarch of Armenia, and his father Saint Narses Pahlav; Saint Matilda, queen of Germany; Saint Clotilde of France; and Saint Arnulf, bishop of Metz, and his daughter-in-law Saint Begga.
My ancestors included people who practiced many different religions, including Anglican/Episcopalian, Armenian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Lutheran, Puritan-Separatist (later Congregationalist or Presbyterian) and Roman Catholic.
And every family tree needs a few dysfunctional ancestors, including some in political marriages: Judith, the 13-year-old wife of a 50-year-old widower who later married her stepson before running off, escaping from her father's prison, and eloping with her true love. Or Robert, a 16-year-old boy married to a 43-year-old woman.