A Symbol of My Heritage

One of the prerequisites for participation in the Summer 2008 Genea-Blogger Group Games is to create a flag that represents your ancestry, heritage, or personal expression. These flags can be created at WeAreMulticolored.

This is my flag. Bold, simple, clean lines. It turned out rather nice, if I don't say so myself ;-0 (Can you tell, I kind of like it?)

• The colors Red, White and Blue signify the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States of America. The first two are the homelands of my earliest known ancestors. The latter is my homeland.
• The Red and White colors also represent Switzerland, as does the small White Cross in the center of the flag. Switzerland is the homeland of my Phend and Wiseman ancestors.
• The two large crosses symbolize my parents while the four stars stand for their four children.
• The four blue sections represent my four grandparents and the ocean their ancestors had to cross to reach this country.
• You'll notice that the four "arms" of the large white cross do not extend to the edges of the blue background. The eight "notches" created as a result, symbolize my eight great-grandparents whose paths crossed and merged at just the right moment in time.
• The tips of the red cross, which extend to the edges of the blue background, represent bridges that symbolically span the ocean as well as connect the generations.

In addition to Swiss, Dutch and English, my heritage also includes a considerable number of "Pennsylvania Dutch" ancestors, one or two Scots-Irish, and probably some other (as yet unknown) nationalities.