Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been spending time over the last six months trying to find out. And they may not be secrets, but perhaps just things he and his closest relatives may not have been aware of.
Earnhardt was one of 12 drivers to make a visit last week to the White House, honoring drivers who made last season's Chase. He said he had a new appreciation for some of the old artwork in the White House in light of time he's spent researching his family tree.
"I didn’t really appreciate how old some of the artwork and stuff is in that house until I did some work on my family tree this last six months and I’ve started to understand what 200 years really means or what 150 years truly means in the grand scope of things," he said.
Asked if he has discovered anything new or interesting about his family tree so far, Earnhardt said:
"We don’t have time today to talk about how much fun I’ve had with working on my family tree. I was fortunate enough to find someone in the field of genealogy that helped me out and I’m trying to put together some kind of a well-organized document to sort of be able to show to family members and what have you and just keep so Kelley’s (Earnhardt, his sister) kids and if I have any one day, they won’t have to do the work.
"I had one interesting experience. Ralph’s (Earnhardt) father, I didn’t know who he was and never really cared who he was, never thought about who he was or what his family would be like. Never thought past Ralph all these years and I started getting into his father and Ralph’s grandfather and I found their burial plots and so me and my grandmother Martha and my sister and my mom Brenda and my girlfriend rode up there one day, just in Kannapolis or Concord and visited their burial plots and a lot of relatives that were born in like 1809 and 1822 and stuff like that.
"It’s really cool to stand there over somebody that is responsible for you being there and that was pretty neat. I had done that before and I had people tell me to work on my family tree before, but I didn’t think it was that big of a deal. Once I got into it and started realizing the importance of it so it’s been a lot of fun.”
Genealogy research can be very full-filling. My family is also from Concord and Charlotte NC. One of my great-grandmother's sisters married an Earnhardt, but don't which one. I have been successful in following my family back to the time of King Henry VIII. Other families in my line I have not been so lucky.
ReplyDeleteWay to go, Dale, Jr.! The family tree behind each of us is huge, which is a humbling thought, but we can learn a lot about it, which is exciting. Encourage others who wish to follow your example to ask their local library for help getting started.
ReplyDeleteReally? Why not have a story on Jr and what kinda of toliet paper he uses.
ReplyDeleteScrew you SHAWNOFTHEDEAD77. A lot of people do this and just because it was JR. you do not like it. To bad you driver is not as popular as JR. That was a dumb a** statement and shows you intelligence.
ReplyDeleteUmm, dear "Professor":
DeleteIt is typically best not to insult someone's intelligence while simultaneously displaying a poor command of the English language.
Love,
Michael
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DeleteWhat does it have to do with racing? I think its a dumb story, why not put a story about jeff gordon on why his grass is not as green as it should be. How about a story on Tony Stewart on his favorite places to eat. The author implies that there is an Earnhardt family secret, instead its a story on genealogy and it sounds like a commercial for Ancestry.com. I just dont see the point. P.S. I have been a Jr fan since 97 before all you bandwagon guys jumped on the wagon.
DeleteI think that's cool Dale's doing that.
ReplyDeleteMy father's side of the family actually has kept track of everyone since they showed up in America in the 1600's. One of the women who married into the family spent about 20 years(1960's to the 1980's) putting together a book of every person in the family tree, starting with the family who showed up in Virginia. When I worked in a library, I had free access to Ancestry.com and managed to find that my relatives go all the way back to the 1540's in England.
My mom has been working on her family tree since the 1980's, but has found holes in it around the Civil War. Her great-grandfather disappeared from the census for a while, then showed back up in the 1890's in New Mexico. Her grandmother was Native American (married into the family), whose tribe gave up their status, so she knows that's a dead-end.
Anyway, Dale should watch that show (or go on it) on NBC called "Who Do You Think You Are? They help celebs find out about their family trees.