“Not only are genealogies more than mere reflections of nature, they are also more than mere records of history. Rather than simply passively documenting who our ancestors were, they are the narratives we construct to actually MAKE them our ancestors.As such, they often entail deliberate manipulations as well as actual distortions of the historical realities they supposedly document. By selectively highlighting certain ancestors (and therefore also our ties to other individuals or groups presumably descending from them) while ignoring, downplaying, or even outright suppressing others, for example, we tactically expand and collapse genealogies to accommodate personal as well as collective strategic agenda of inclusion and exclusion. The way we construct genealogies thus tells us as much about the present as it does about the past.”From 'Ancestors and Relatives: Genealogy, Identity, and Community' by Eviatar Zerubavel, an Israeli sociologist at Rutgers University.When I think about it, my Early Modern Western Sephardic ancestors – highly mobile and with fluid identity – are the exception to the rule in my researchable family history, yet that is where I choose to focus.