the friday five

1. what is your lineage? where are your ancestors from? my dad's side is from england and france. the harlan clan came over from england, to america, sprouting out of illinois. the riette clan (his grandmother's side) came from france to louisiana. my mother's side, drake, came from england. all of my relatives, that i know on her side are from alabama. my dad's are in louisiana.

2. of those countries, which would you most like to visit? i'd be most interested in visiting the area of northern france where my dad's maternal family came from.

3. which would you least like to visit? why? iowa (see below)

4. do you do anything during the year to celebrate or recognize your heritage? every year the harlan families across america reunite. the one time i attended one of those was when it was held in mt. pleasant, iowa -- a very distant relative was married to abe lincoln's oldest son and you can tour their house there. i grew up attending yearly drake reunions in huntsville. although, ever since my grandfather died, i stopped going.

5. who were the first ancestors to move to your present country (parents, grandparents, etc)? my great grandfather on my dad's side escaped from german armies via a train out of northern france during the world war. he eventually came to america.