What's the best thing you've learned about your genealogy?

I too have traced my genealogy back to the US in the 1600s,

One of the most interesting things I've learned is that one of my forebearers was a slave from Angola, who, because he owned a horse and was given his freedom, was given a status unlike others who were black. I am caucasian. I also learned that I had relatives who survived Jamestown, also in the early 1600s.

That I have many distant cousins that i reconnected with my grandparents and parents who they either never met or lost contact with many years ago. I also discovered my ancestors from England discovered and built the town of Lake George in NY. I must say I am a huge mut, of being Italian, Irish, Swedish, Russian, English, Welsh, Scotish, French and Venezuelan descent ; Things I never knew I was.

I must add, everything about my genealogy is wonderful and I am proud of my ancestors.

I have learned that the what my father once told me was true after tracing three lines of my family to the 1600 in the US He was correct when he said that it was with the blood of families like ours the US was built. The was even correct about my Mothers family although one line of her family was concentrated in California and help built it into what it use to be,