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• What do you think?

I've been doing a little digging into the family history, and I'm a little disturbed.

Our ancestry is Scottish, and the Ogilvie clan crest is — and I'm not making this up — a naked, buxom woman chained to an iron cage.

Classy.

Then there's the transvestite tightrope walker.

Apparently my grandmother was the youngest child of an American-style Von Trapp family (a la "Sound of Music"), and they traveled the South during the Great Depression, singing and performing circus tricks. Her father just happened to dress as a woman during his daring act.

Well, this explains a lot.

Then there's the amazing connection with the American Revolution (and it goes beyond my awful, bald-capped performance as Ben Franklin in the fourth-grade play).

Turns out that one of the first Ogilvies off the boat (and the dude my dad, Kimbro, was named after) fought for the Continental Army.

We always knew Dad's name was strange, but no one really talked about our history. A few months back, I was curious enough to ask him to dig up some records his mother left behind.

Sure enough, we found letters from a great aunt who did the research 50 years ago. Besides the cryptic records that show a link to a Bush family (cue the hysterical laughter by anyone who talks politics with me), she had the foresight to note that future generations might be interested to know that Kimbrough Ogilvie fought in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, right down the road in North Carolina.

I immediately turned to Google and found that the 225th anniversary re-enactment will be held this Saturday near Greensboro (we're so there).

Literally the day after I Google, my sister in Florida calls. She said the strangest thing happened at work. In a random visit, she met another Ogilvie — and he was Jamaican. He told her that he'd done a lot of family research and had visited the Ogilvie castle back in Angus, Scotland. He learned of three original Ogilvie brothers in Colonial times — one headed for Canada, one to America and the other to the Caribbean. Who knows if this is a direct bloodline to our own Kimbrough, but how cool! We have a Jamaican branch of the family. Wonder if they know about the naked lady in the cage.

So besides the endless joking about the S&M crest, I will take something meaningful from this.

I've learned to honor your past (or at least take the time to find it). Try to preserve the enduring spirit in your families. Never forget our immigrant past, and embrace the interconnectedness of our nation and world.

I'll be sure to contemplate all of these weighty matters while, um, honoring the Irish side of the family this weekend. Here's to not waking up naked in a cage.

Want to research your family?

Start at your local library or the Virginia Genealogical Society (www.vgs.org, 804-285-8954)

Or check out the 12th Family History Institute of Southwest Virginia

What: Includes presentations on Internet genealogy; records of North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee; the Irish of Wythe County; and Civil War pension records, among others.

When: April 8

Where: Wytheville Holiday Inn

Sponsor: Wythe County Genealogical and Historical Association

Deadline for reduced prices is March 25.

For registration and fee information, e-mail Kathy Miller at skrmiller@naxs.net or send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to the association at P.O. Box 1601, Wytheville, VA 24382.