Dig into Your Own Family's Past

The New York Daily News teamed up with Ancestry.com, one of the top genealogical web sites, to research Rev. Al Sharpton's lineage. (Sharpton, a former Pentecostal minister and long time civil rights activist, ran for President in 2004.)

The research found that Sharpton is descended from a family of slaves owned by the family of the  late South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond. The irony here is that Thurmond was a staunch supporter of segregation (complete story here). (As an interesting aside, it's not the first time Strom Thurmond's lineage made headlines. Just before he died at the age of 100, news stories reported that he was the father of Essie May Williams, a child he'd had with the family's black maid.)

From where I sit, the starring role in the Sharpton/Thurmond story goes to genealogical research and the power that the Internet brings to those who want to discover their family histories. According to the Daily News, Ancestry.com researchers traced Reverend Sharpton's lineage through his great grandfather, Coleman Sharpton, a South Carolina slave who was sent to work for Julia Thurmond Sharpton. During the search, documents like slave contracts were uncovered. Ancestry.com's chief family genealogist, Megan Smolenyak, says that the next step would be for Sharpton to undergo DNA testing, matching his DNA with a present-day white male Sharpton or Thurmond to see if they are biologically related.

Ancestry.com houses five billion documents in its database. Recently it added 55 million documents on the lives of African-Americans. These include slave narratives and lists of U.S. Colored Troops from the Civil War. Perusing these records, even if you're not researching your own family history, can give you a good sense of that troubled period in U.S. history. In honor of Black History Month, the fee to view these documents is being waived for three-day access. (Normally Ancestry.com is free if you're searching and creating your family tree, but there's a monthly charge for viewing genealogical documents.)

Feeling inspired to dive into your own history? Here's a good tutorial.

Other fascinating moments in genealogical politics? The Boston Globe traced John Kerry's lineage in this interesting article.

Howard Dean's ties to the King of Scotland appear in this genealogical history.