Since food is a part of each country's culture, the study of our ancestors in genealogy sometimes leads to the foods they ate. The primary reason for Genealogy is to determine "where we come from" so that we can better understand "who we are and where we fit" in this great big world. Food is a powerful part of this Greater Understanding we are searching for since to just about everyone, Food is Memory. Picture a beloved family member and I bet that most of us almost immediately picture some kind of food dish, flavor, smell and maybe even the color of it. Humans are emotional creatures and we live our life through experiences. These experiences define are who we are and how we look at the world.

As I searched through the records for my people, I found that I could be called a "Mutt" since it seems we married all over the place and with whomever it please. If I just follow through on my surname then I come from the Alsace-Lorraine region of France. Probably why I love sauerkraut so much. Just knowing this much has told me a little about my likes and dislikes since I truely believe that we carry within us some of the genetic history of the peoples we come from.  I am French and also German since the area in question kept being warred over ever few generations. I am Scottish and also African. Probably a little Jewish but that is yet to be determined. As I continue to search, I keep learning more and more about myself as well.

I hope you dwell into the food history of your ancesters, learning about their lives, their loves, and the food that sustained them as well as the foods they used to celebrate life with. Feel free to include old recipes into your current life so as to give life to the peoples who ate them so long ago. Question why they ate these foods and how the food created the culture you come from. Enjoy the foods and, if possible, allow it to open a gateway to that area of the planet your ancesters came from.