Where do I come from?

We have a big book of family history (tracing my maternal grandmother's line) that I remember being fascinated with yet overwhelmed by when I was a kid.  Over the past 10ish years I have wanted to go back to look through it again, but couldn't find it, and was afraid it had been eaten by my parent's basement, which sometimes looks like the room of requirement at Hogwarts when it becomes the room to hide things in.  However, I ran across that book today, which served as sufficient distraction from homework all afternoon.

I'm sure you are not as enthralled with my family history as I am, but here are some things I learned (or was reminded about my family today:

*One line of my family has been traced back to the first census of England in 900 AD... including some nobility
*Some of my family were French Huguenots, who left France due to religious persecution and arrived as refugees in Holland, and eventually making their way to Virginia.
*Several of my ancestors were given land grants from the King of England, some of the land is still known by that family name today.
*One of ancestors was a doctor sent to the colonies to care for the soldiers who came to fight the indians... that ancestor ended up being killed by the indians, but his sons were spared because they were hidden in a hole in the ground.
*One of my ancestors was on the committee doing something with the ratification of the Federal constitution.
*I read the will of one of my ancestors, committing his soul to God, and then bequeathing his slaves to his sons and daughters.
*There are four places that I found in the tree where cousins get married.
*I actually do have a family (in a direct line) from KY, you just have to go back several hundred years to find them.

Several movies/stories depict a character (usually a girl) looking to her past to find herself and who she really is.  While I don't think that a part of me has been missing without this search, it was gratifying to get a bigger picture of where I came from and some of the experiences my far extended family members had to walk through to get where we are.  I am thankful they persevered.  I am humbled by some of their struggles.  I am indebted to the family members who did all the research to credibly document how we all fit together.  And I am looking in anticipation for what might eventually be written about me for my great-great-great-etc.- grandchildren to read several centuries from now.  (Assuming that Christ doesn't return before then, and as I'm sure my mom will point out, that I actually find a husband and start having kids).