All Saints, All Souls, Guy Fawkes Day, Remembrance Sunday, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving….November is full of remembering. Genealogy is a way to remember, a way to learn what we can of our forebears and appreciate where we have come from. There is often precious little to reflect on other than names and dates and places.

The PBS program, Finding Your Roots, is a favorite of mine. The host, Dr. Henry Gates, proposes to show that one’s family history can be more than just names, dates and places. I was amazed when I began seeing family names I recognized in a recent program. As it turns out, I am distantly related to Anderson Cooper! We share a common 5th GreatGrandfather, Solmon Boykin. Mr. Cooper’s 4th GGfather (son of Solomon) was Burwell Boykin. My 4th GGfather was James A. Boykin, a younger son of Solomon, by a second wife. Here’s how Mr. Cooper is encouraged to remember his 4th GGrandfather: Bold Act of Rebellion

I will have more to say about the details of Burwell Boykin later. Today I want to focus on remembrance.

Here is a recent NPR piece from the Six Words project that raises questions about how we reconcile remembrance of our ancestors with our modern sensibilities: Must we forget our Confederate ancestors?

How do we remember those of our family, even far past family, that offend our modern ideals? There is only one way; with forgiveness and prayer, because they were not, I suspect, all that different from us. They did what they did the only way they knew how, for their children and great-grandchildren.