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By Tom Kurtz
This summer, following a trip to the Sons of the American Revolution headquarters in Louisville, I began diving into the rabbit hole of my genealogy. Through the database Family Search, what began as a simple search quickly unraveled into weeks of fruitful mapping and researching.
My discoveries gave me a whole new understanding of my family and our history. I found how the first Kurtzes left religious turmoil in Germany to shepherd a Lutheran community in Pennsylvania. I learned of Lord Dickey, a Scottish nobleman of the 16th century and my 14th great-grandfather. I discovered that the late and legendary UofL football coach, Howard Schnellenberger, was my third cousin, once-removed.
My foray into genealogy also reshaped my perspective on Kentucky, the United States, and the histories thereof. As a young person in the 21st century, it’s excusably easy to feel not just
removed from history, but almost on a separate timeline of a past whose only evidence exists in impersonal textbooks and classrooms. I, of course, know that I’m a product of people who lived through defining periods in the country’s history, but until I saw the names, stories, and in some cases, even pictures of these ancestors, I felt no real connection to them or those periods.
Most importantly, especially as a McConnell Scholar, is how the study of my family tree
underpinned my pride and love for Kentucky. I came to UofL with no sense of loyalty to the
state that raised me. Three years of retreats across the commonwealth’s state parks, orations on
Kentucky’s history from Dr. John Kleber, and relationships with classmates from every corner of
the Bluegrass State slowly changed my perspective. But nothing quite gave purpose to my
Kentuckian-ness until I visualized the generations of ancestors who gave up so much and took
chances to plant the roots of their legacy in Kentucky. There were the Lutherans who, having
already discovered religious freedom in Pennsylvania, sought economic prosperity in Central
Kentucky. There were the Bavarian immigrants who settled in the Southern Indiana Catholic
community of St. Meinrad, only to cross the river into Louisville in search of an education.
There was the English family who discovered the quiet life of a Northern Kentucky farm. While
I don’t quite know where or how or even if I’ll build my life here, I’m heartened that if
generations of families from every walk of life were able to find a home and an opportunity in
Kentucky, then there’s no need for me to look any further.
Tom Kurtz is a McConnell Scholar at the University of Louisville in the Class of 2027. He is studying political science with a minor in political marketing.