I got involved in a private Facebook group last week called “The Shinn Family: From England to New Jersey and Beyond.” If you did not grow up with the last name “Shinn” or marry someone who did (or have parents who did), chances are you will never see this group on Facebook, nor would you care to. But it’s been kind of a kick for me.

I grew up in my mother’s hometown in Alabama, where she lured my dad after law school with the promise of a job at her father’s firm. Dad, who grew up in Raleigh, NC and met my mom in college, agreed to “try it for two years.” They are now 75 years old and still living in that same Alabama town. Growing up, we were the only Shinns I’d ever heard of. We very well might be the only Shinns in all of Alabama. In fact, the name is so unusual there that upon hearing it, people often asked me if I was Chinese. I am not remotely Chinese.

But in my dad’s home state, it’s a very different story. His father – my “Dabba” – was one of 11 children born to John Calvin Shinn and Laura Barringer Shinn in Cabarrus County, NC, and there are Shinns all over the place up there. (This is a picture of the family. Two siblings are missing.) When I joined Facebook a few years ago, in fact, I learned that there are Shinns all over the country. And now, having joined this private group, I’m realizing just how ubiquitous we are. It’s been a blast “meeting” these people, hearing their stories, comparing traits (an inordinate number of Shinns are left-handed!), seeing the “Shinn Nose” on so many interesting new faces . . . I even learned that another Shinn out there builds guitars, just like my grandfather did. Seriously. Who builds guitars??

DNA’s a fascinating thing.

You know what else is fascinating? Genealogy. The people who started this group are seriously into it, and thanks to their research, I’ve learned that all us Shinns in the United States are descended from John and Jane Shinn, Quakers who came from England in 1678. (They had nine children, hence our proliferation.) Apparently, John had been imprisoned for refusing to attend or pay taxes to the Church of England, and upon his release, he and his family sailed to the New World – New Jersey, specifically – with a group of fellow Quakers seeking religious freedom and peace. Knowing I descended from such brave, principled and feisty stock delights me to no end!

Climbing further up the family tree, exploring its twisty branches, I also learned that it was my great, great, great, great grandfather Samuel Shinn who was responsible for bringing Shinns to the South. The reason he left New Jersey? Not quite as inspiring as the impulse that drove my earlier Quaker ancestors from England. It seems Samuel had inherited slaves from his father, and by the 1750s, owning slaves was increasingly uncool up North. So Samuel (who had fourteen children!) headed down South. Not the proudest moment in Shinn family history, but it was a different time, I suppose.

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This genealogy stuff is great. The minute you start feeling too puffed up about one of your ancestors, another one comes along to put you in your place. It’s exhilarating and humbling all at the same time.

Kind of like being human.