Often where you're from defines you. We have these preconceived notions about the character of people from certain places. I was reminded of that recently on a UK Who Do You Think You Are? episode which featured Lisa Hammond who, among the other roles that she played, once had a recurring character on the EastEnders. She was proud of her East End roots, the gritty down to earth characters of her ancestors came from the right place with them being born in various neighbourhoods of London's East End. She cheered every time a new London birthplace for one of her forebears was revealed until, as was inevitable, there was an outlier. Her original London ancestors had started out in Wales. That was a surprise which made Lisa rethink some of her family's past.
In my own family many, many of my family lines ended up in London, a fair portion of them in the East End. They came from all over, although I haven't found any that came from Wales yet, nor the ones from Cornwall that Ancestry says I have. (I'm not sure what's up with that.) Still, I feel a sense of pride with my London background even though I wasn't born there and never lived there. Still I am but one removed so I come by my pride honestly. Then again, I also feel a sense of pride at having lived in various cities in Canada, getting a sense of each which can only be obtained in walking the streets of a city in which you live. When it comes right down to it, leaning about the places in which they lived can tell you a lot about your ancestors.
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