My Family Heritage

My heritage is one of mixed roots as many American families now are. The family gene pool is pulled from a variety of different ethnicities including Choctaw Indian, Irish and German. When America was formed the Irish were viewed as lower class and poor and this limited the work they were permitted to perform. My great, great, grandfather, who was Irish and German, married a Choctaw Indian lady when he was only 22 years old and has been in the country for only a short amount of time. The marriage permitted him to build his home on the Indian reservation in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His family was provided free cheese, milk, and schooling that ended up consisting of 13 children. The family made ends meets from farming the lands and bartering with their neighbors and community. Barter was a valued trade for several generations for our family. …show more content…
My great grandfather, Aubrey Collum Jr. left the reservation and joined the military during World War II and set the precedence for many future solders in our family to include myself. After the war Aubrey settled down with my grandmother who was from West Virginia and they begin to plant roots in the east coast. The family continued to survive by raising crops and animals and was still considered a low class family. For years to come our family tribes would move between Oklahoma and West Virginia. For the first 7 years of my life I was raised in Oklahoma and remember always being surrounded by a big family. Being from a big family meant the children were disciplined by many but also brought on the feelings of security and