I think this thread wound itself into my sleep last night, and I started running the exponents. How many ancestors did my children have back 200 years (ca. 250), 400 years (4000), and 600 years (250,000)! The fact that I identify with MacBean and ignore the other 250 ancestors at the time my family came to the New World makes no rational sense. Yet I enjoy it.

On a separate note, I have often wondered if forming an identity involved pushing away that which is not included in that identity Hence the pants-bashing in this crowd