Free Republic

<p>Almost from the time he was old enough to read the "whites only" signs on department stores in Montgomery, Ala., Ulysses Moore has been on a quest. Where did I come from? he wondered.</p> <p>He knew he was more than just a "colored" child of the segregated South, that his legacy extended beyond the slave ships that brought 12 million Africans across the Atlantic. Was he descended from Shaka Zulu or the great Mandinka warriors, or the builders of the ancient world's greatest library in Egypt?</p>

And that leads Good Morning America's parenting contributor Ann Pleshette Murphy to her second Murphy's Law: Thou Shalt Give Them Roots. Albert Dehart Washington III, who also goes by DD Washington, is learning from Albert Dehart Washington I, a grandfather who is wisely following Murphy's edict. Freed Slave Gave Family Name "My family originated in Dinwoodie County in Virginia and we can trace the family back to 1808," Washington told his grandson. "My great-great grandfather? Well, he was a slave, and he changed his name to Washington after he was freed." Connecting with their family's past not only helps children...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation of immigrants is again reshaping its identity. While Hispanic immigration surged in the 1990s, new census figures show a decline in the number of people identifying themselves as Irish, German and other European ancestries. More people are simply calling themselves ``American.'' ``When I was younger, my parents explained that you are an American citizen but your heritage was from Ireland,'' said Jim Donohue, a New York City investment banker who has dual citizenship. Some of Donohue's ancestors came to America as early as the 1860s. While he has grown closer to his Irish roots in...