A Shocking Letter Foreshadowed

Scott Pratt 0:00

Got the letter and in my mind I'm thinking, wow, this is either gonna go really, really well, or it's gonna reveal something about me and my family that's not, you know, it that I'm gonna have to atone for, right? And I was prepared for either one of those scenarios because again, I had fallen in love with everybody that was at the show, you know. I mean, so I got the letter and I wasn't sure. And so, yes, it was probably it was uh it was a great shock. It was it was tremendous.

Railroad Ties And Why It Matters

Scott’s Upbringing And Assumed Heritage

Crista Cowan 0:31

Stories That Live in Us is a podcast that inspires you to form deep connections with your family, past, present, and future. I'm Krista Cowan, known online as the Barefoot Genealogist. Counting down to the upcoming celebration of America's 250th birthday, you'll meet families from each state whose stories are woven into the very fabric of America. Tales of immigration, migration, courage, and community that remind us that when we tell our stories, we strengthen the bonds that connect us. So join me for season two as we discover from sea to shining sea the stories that live in us. In 2019, Ancestry took a group of six individuals to a church in Brooklyn, New York. Now, these individuals were descendants of formerly enslaved people and abolitionists who helped those enslaved people escape on the Underground Railroad. It was all part of a documentary that Ancestry filmed with Sundance, and it was called Railroad Ties. If you have not watched it yet, it's worth pausing right now and going to watch that video. You can find it on the Ancestry YouTube channel. Again, it's called Railroad Ties. I'll link it in the description here on the podcast, also on the YouTube video so that you can find it easily. But it is so heartwarming and it represented this kind of change in how Ancestry was telling stories. And the really beautiful thing about it is that the stories keep coming. It wasn't just that one documentary. Back in season one, I had one of the individuals who starred in that documentary on the podcast where she talked about her experience. And today I've invited another guest. Scott Pratt lives in the state of Washington, but his roots in the state of New York go deep. And while we could have told a million stories about the city of New York alone, much less the whole state, I think Scott's two sides of his family tree are pretty representative of what it means to be from New York. Enjoy my conversation with Scott Pratt. Well, Scott, I'm so excited to have this conversation with you. I feel like I know you because I've seen uh the documentary so many times. And I don't want to rehash uh the whole story because I really hope that people will go and watch it. But I would love to hear from you kind of what you were feeling or thinking when Ancestry very first reached out to you to participate in that film.

Scott Pratt 3:20

Well, it's kind of a little bit of a funny story because it really was my father who was reached out to first. And, you know, because of all my years of uh talking during public speaking, he said, you know, why don't you go and represent our family? He had no idea, and he had all kinds of you know thoughts about you know what what this could all be about. And you know, we ran through, you know, like everybody does. It was like a game of clue. Who, you know, was it Mr. Mustard in the in the kitchen, right? You know, and my dad had just convinced himself that you know it was our our Scottish roots and our Scottish heritage, and you know, be looking for in any sign of Alexander Hamilton. And it was just it was like I went with a totally different perception of what the whole story was going to be about, obviously. But I mean, I was still excited, and you know, my my mom's family is from Brooklyn. I went to Long Island every weekend, so you know it was exciting to go home. Yeah, it's like a trip home.

Crista Cowan 4:19

Yeah, absolutely. So, as you think about kind of growing up, what you knew about your family history or how you identified as far as your heritage goes. Uh, you mentioned Scottish. What else did that look like?

Scott Pratt 4:30

Well, the funny part is that if you could imagine, I grew up in a very matriarchal family. My Italian grandmother and my Italian great-grandmother pretty much ran the show. I had a lovely Japanese grandfather, but you know, he would they they called him the babe, you know, and he was pre-ma manager. So, like my family was about getting cannolis and, you know, hey, babe, go down to the local corner store in Long Island, and you know, and they were all from Brooklyn with the very thick accents, and you know, they just made sure we were every weekend there was soccer, go to grandma's house for you know, raviolis and sausage. And so I just grew up that way. You know, I mean I even took in high school, I would see all prep in West Orange, New Jersey. You know, I even took Italian, and the the teacher would go through the list and he'd go, Di Giovanni, DeSantos, Pratt, what are you doing in this class? And I'm like, Loop, we've been doing this for three years now, like, you know, but the class, right? So uh my life was just, you know, I was kind of felt like I was just a, you know, just an Italian kid from Jersey, right? You know, with this, you know, my grandmother still spoke a little bit of Italian. I studied Italian for her and my grand great grandmother. And my dad was just kind of his side of the family, it was just yes, we're Scottish, but it was very quiet. So we didn't really know a whole lot. Yeah.

Walking Into The Brooklyn Church

Crista Cowan 5:47

Yeah. And that last name, Pratt, like Pratt has very deep colonial roots in New England, right? But but that Scottish identity, I think, is a lot of is strong in a lot of people.

Scott Pratt 5:59

Yeah, yeah. Well, my dad had kind of made all the ties and the weaving of the story. We went to a lot of uh what with once we graduated high school, we went to a lot of uh the Celtic festivals with the cabertoss and everything else like that. And he would wear a kilt. And I know like we're related to Ace of Pratt in a way, and you're very right. It's very colonial. I mean, it's very, very colonial. Yeah. Rattleboro, Vermont. Yeah.

Crista Cowan 6:25

I may have some Pratt's in my own family tree.

Scott Pratt 6:28

So we're related.

Crista Cowan 6:30

We could be, it's totally possible.

Scott Pratt 6:32

As we would say, as we would say at my grandmother's house, you're a paisana.

Crista Cowan 6:36

Well, I wish I was related to the Italian side, because no Italian at all here. Well, the filming brought you to a historic location in Brooklyn and and you having connections to Brooklyn, like that feeling of going home, I suspect. But when you first walked into that particular building, right? Had you been there before? Was there any feeling of connection or identification at all?

Scott Pratt 7:01

No, um, like I said, you know, like I mean, I knew that my mom was born in Bensonhurst and she was from, you know, she was from Brooklyn. She actually went to high school with, I think it was either Lenny or Squeegee from Laverne and Shirley. And, you know, I mean, like, you know, like we we were in the city all the time, you know. Um, and then because my dad, you know, my mom and dad met in Northeastern, you know, we went to, you know, um the north end and we were in the churches. So I kind of had a feel for those churches before it really wasn't about that. The sense that I got like immediately when I was there was just, I don't know, the warmth of everybody that was there and everything. But when we got into the church, you know, it had that same feeling of like, you know, the churches where Paul Revere was. And so I obviously was looking for, I'm looking in the stained glass, kind of thinking like I'm up in Boston. Am I gonna see Alexander Hamilton here? And I keep walking around and asking everybody, hey, do you have any relation to Alexander Hamilton? And they're all looking at me like, who is this guy? What are you talking about? This we don't have a relationship to Alexander Hamilton. So I just decided to just enjoy my time and get to know everybody, and they were just such amazing people. I was probably a little bit of a comedian because I was just I didn't know where else to, you know, I didn't know where I fit into this whole storyline. You know, Seth was pretty much really quickly like identified, but I was like, you know, am I the protagonist? I mean, like, where where do I fit it? Where where am I woven into this story? You know, and going to high school and growing up in Jersey, and you know, I mean, where I grew up, you were Italian, black, or Irish, right? So like nobody sat and uh I don't mean to go off on a tangent, but I was listening to somebody talk about it, and they were like, you know, they were lighter skinned, you know, they were a lighter skinned person, and they were like, you know, I just decided to put that aside in my life now, right? And I'm not done with going to high school and like, you know, am I gonna sit at the table with with my black friends? But so I'm just sitting at my own table, right? And I thought it was really inspiring to listen to somebody talk about it that way. And I I think growing up in New Jersey the way that I did, and with such really gracious parents that were just open to everyone, I guess I felt like my whole life, I just sat at the table.

Fear Of Being The Villain

Crista Cowan 9:18

That's really beautifully said. I love the sentiment behind that. And so here you find yourself sitting in this church in Brooklyn, and a story is being told about African American history, and there's this moment where you're getting ready to read a letter that's going to reveal to you your part in this story. What were you feeling in the moments leading up to that?

Scott Pratt 9:41

Do you want the candid answer? Absolutely. You might laugh, it might be a little bit, a little bit controversial. Um, because I mean, honestly, like I said, I have this Japanese background, this Italian background, it all came through Ellis Island. You know, I'm kind of like I'm a kind of American apple pie, right? And here I am, like you said, and right before the story, one of my buddies had called me and said, you know, you do know there's always a, you know, there's always the antagonist or the person in the reveal shows. And I'm I kind of honestly, I gotta be honest, I got the letter, and in my mind, I'm thinking, wow, this is either gonna go really, really well, or it's gonna reveal something about me and my family that's not, you know, it that I'm gonna have to atone for, right? And I was prepared for either one of those scenarios because again, I had fallen in love with everybody that was at the show, you know. I mean, so I got the letter and I wasn't sure. And so, yes, it was probably it was uh it was a great shock. It was it was tremendous, yeah, yeah. Almost like to uh it was a mix of emotions. Yeah, I I still can actually visualize myself being in the room and having that letter in my hand, yeah.

Crista Cowan 10:55

Yeah, so for those who haven't seen the film, and again, I really like if you're listening to this, like hit pause, go find the link in the description, watch the film. It's super powerful. And I think if you watch it, you'll be able to see um like Scott's whole experience through this, um, and then come back and listen to the rest of our conversation. But if you don't want to do that, that's fine. Let's give you, let's get everybody caught up. Um, the particular film is about um individuals who are descendants of a group of people who escaped slavery on the Underground Railroad. And this church that you're sitting in in Brooklyn, Scott, it's a it's a stop on the Underground Railroad. And what you were thinking was: were you the descendant of people who enslaved these people? Were you descendants of people who were chasing these people? Like, like, what was your role there in that thing? And what was it that was revealed to you?

Scott Pratt 11:56

Um, my role is that I'm a descendant of African slaves and and uh a very, very powerful story, um, an exciting story, something that has uplifted in my life a lot and had a lot of rippling effects all over my, you know, the and it's totally has fingerprints all over my life at this point. Um, you know, the the the story, the the fact that they barely got through, and and thanks to a uh a ship captain was able to say that you know there was yellow fever on the on board. And so the inspectors didn't even get on the boat. They let them go right through the, you know, right through the through to Brooklyn. The fact that, you know, New York at the time was still very pro-slavery because they were benefiting off of the goods that were coming off through New York. Most people don't know that. And, you know, instantaneously, like my whole, every my whole life changed in like seconds, you know, like and I could imagine what she was going through. I was a powerful moment.

Crista Cowan 12:55

And New York City plays such a pivotal role in this story, right? Because here you are in Brooklyn filming this. You're coming to learn about this church now through an entirely different set of eyes when you realize you have a three times great-grandmother and her children who were, you know, escaping slavery on the Underground Railroad. This church played such a critical role in that. But Brooklyn, Manhattan, like there's a tension at the time between those places. And Brooklyn was a lot more progressive at the time, yeah.

Scott Pratt 13:25

Yeah, that's pretty much it. And, you know, I mean, again, remember my perspective where I was coming from is, you know, I've got a my mom was born in Brooklyn, right? She met my dad in Northeastern, you know, in in Massachusetts, which is great, but that's where they finally ended up. And then, you know, my great-grandfather on my mom's side, you know, he was Japanese, so he came through Brooklyn, and now Sophia's in Brooklyn. So, like, I kind of have this very different Brooklyn has like, you know, a little bit in my heart now.

Crista Cowan 13:55

Yeah, absolutely. No, I think that's but that's that's the reality, is that these places played such a critical role in the stories of the lives of our ancestors, and for Sophia and her children, this was the this was the beginning of freedom for them.

Scott Pratt 14:12

Yeah. And so that that that changed of, you know, as you do know, like she was a very light-skinned black woman, right? So the passing for white really started very early for my family, you know, and um, you know, it's it's brought good things and it's brought bad things, you know. I mean, it um it's heartbreaking in some ways and uh uh uplifting in other ways, but the the power and the strength and kind of the endurance, the resiliency, that's the best word for it, the resiliency that these women had uh to get themselves up into Massachusetts. And I think the thing that was the most powerful for me being at the church, you know, when we were downstairs, just the unbearable conditions that were, you know, uh uh thrust upon these people was just it's unimaginable.

Crista Cowan 15:06

So your great great-grandmother was the child that escaped with her mother Sophia, and and like that's not that long ago, really, in time.

Scott Pratt 15:16

No, no. Marietta, you know, she if she died in 1931 and I was born in 1971, you know, when you put those things into historical perspective, which most people don't have that frame of mind, that is that is nothing. Yeah, right. You know, that's that's basically uh for me, this was, you know, like I said, it was uplifting and obviously um you know, there's a lot to learn. There was a lot, there's a lot to unpackage in all of that storyline, you know. But I, you know, at the time when it was going on, I was just excited. I was excited about this new heritage coming from a family of, like I said, you know, with Japanese descent and Italian descent and you know, strong colonial descent, you know. Um I embraced it. It was very exciting to me. And something I was very, very proud of, uh, which translated, like I said, into many, many different aspects of my life after that. But then there was also the there was also a lot of realizations that come along with that, you know, yeah, that that most people don't have to go through. I'm on a very personal level and uh professional level, and also what I think is really interesting is is that it's it's sometimes almost very hard, it's hard to communicate with people about it because I'm one respect, you know, I never had to endure what the other people in the group, you know, CC and all those people who I love to death, right? You know, and like that was something that was not in my narrative, right? Um so I don't ever want to take away from their experience, I don't ever want to feel like, you know, and I have a deeper respect, right? Not that I was unaware of it before. I grew up in a family that was very educated, you know, so I knew, but we had compassion and empathy, but it's deeper now. But on the same token, when you talk about the pride of it, certain people on certain sides they didn't take well to it. So it was very um in fact, I have a very a very nice young woman who after she saw the documentary, she was so moved and inspired, she called me and she said, I don't mean to be strange about this or anything, but I've gone through the exact same experience that you have. Uh, I I'm hoping that I can share what I went through to be a support mechanism for you through this whole process. And we're still friends today. In fact, I spoke to her this morning and told her what was going on, and she was so thrilled for me, and she was so excited that I was going to get to share it. And honestly, Krista, like you reaching out to me and letting me be an ambassador for Brooklyn, an ambassador for the Grays, an ambassador for this whole program in ancestry.com, it gives me a forum to be proud.

Passing For White And Family Erasure

Crista Cowan 18:11

I mean, you've had obviously now years to kind of think about this and process it and come to understand what it means for you. But that first night, after hearing this news as you sat there, like what what were you thinking? Like you were raised having zero knowledge of Sophia and Marietta and the fact that that this was really close in your family tree.

Scott Pratt 18:34

Yeah. Um sadness. Um my grandfather, and I don't mean to keep I don't mean to distract from Marietta, but there's a there's a prevalence between the two fan the two sides of my family, the whole Brooklyn story. You're kind of choking me up a little bit. So um growing in a house where my grandfather was called the babe, he was the most loved man, you know, ever, right?

Crista Cowan 19:07

But it was and was he just of Japanese descent or was he a Japanese immigrant?

Scott Pratt 19:12

No, he was of Japanese descent. Okay, his great my great my my um John Sasa, his father, came here and was, you know, a tailor in in New York. They were very well to do, you know, they had very different kind of my grandfather's name was actually a Kuro, it wasn't Warren, but he changed it to be Americanized. He saw normal, you know, he was you know in the United States militaries and everything else like that. Um but because of what happened with the concentration camps and the the stigma the Japanese had during the war, it was almost like that part of my family was erased. And so with the last name of Sasa, which sounded a little bit of Italian, nobody really questioned it. He was the babe, he was so loved, he was the babe, he'd hang around to have both sides of my family be erased in a certain way. Um and it was erased, and there's a lot of family stuff that we're processing as a family together going through this, you know, because there's a lot of details of it, you know, that we're all trying to kind of come to grips with it was heartbreaking. Yeah. And I've had to make up with it for a lot of lost time.

Crista Cowan 20:28

Yeah.

Scott Pratt 20:29

Well, ways and outlets.

Frank’s Film Career And Harvard Journal

Crista Cowan 20:31

Yeah. So as you've as you've tried to process this, like there's another character who's kind of emerged in this story, which is Marietta's son Frank. And tell us what you've learned about him and his life.

Scott Pratt 20:45

So my great-grandfather, Frank, you know, Frank Albion Andrews, he was a, you know, he's a silent movie star. He was in movies with with uh Mary Hickford, I think her name was. And um, you know, she was famous at the time. This was not as he was not in small roles by any stretch of the imagination. He actually has his own acting page that you can actually go and look on. If so, I mean, over the years, people have reached out to me and um wanted to know more about Frank. And I've learned, and you know, I I've watched, like, I've seen pictures of him and seen the colorization that's happened. And um some of the folks that were part of this, you know, the ancestry talked about colorization and you know, what that experience was like, you know, for them, because they were lighter skinned. And, you know, um, but the most exciting part was just when one of the guys, one of the person who was doing a thesis, he was doing his doctoral thesis, um, had uncovered the fact that my, you know, Frank's journal about passing for white in America is at the Harvard Library.

Crista Cowan 21:51

Wow. So Sophia and Marietta escaped through Brooklyn. They made their way up to Massachusetts, yes?

Scott Pratt 21:56

Correct. Yeah.

Crista Cowan 21:57

Okay, but Frank finds himself back. In New York at some point. So he was raised. He was raised identifying as mulatto, I think, from the censuses is what we learn. But by the time he gets back to New York, now he's in the big city. He's back in a place where he can kind of reinvent himself and he starts passing as white when he is in New York. Yeah.

Scott Pratt 22:21

Yeah. That's my understanding. That's my understanding. And that's what the journal kind of describes, because obviously he wouldn't be able to get movie roles, you know, the kind of movie roles that he wanted to have, unless he could have passed for white.

Crista Cowan 22:34

He doesn't just embrace the lightness that allows him to pass for white. Like he marries an Irish woman.

Scott Pratt 22:41

Right. Right. Right.

Crista Cowan 22:43

And yet you're telling me this whole time, and this is fascinating to me, this whole time, he's keeping a journal about his experience passing.

Scott Pratt 22:52

Yeah.

Crista Cowan 22:52

So he's not completely abandoning his heritage. He's just having it.

Scott Pratt 22:58

Yeah. No, it it's it's very clear, like I said, and and when I look at the movie, you know, like the different kinds of uh photography that captures his likeness. Sometimes it's very dark and you can tell that he's black. And then other times it's it's basically washed out and colorized so that you can't tell. Yeah. Wow. Wow.

Crista Cowan 23:19

Um and he and Frank is your dad's grandfather.

Scott Pratt 23:25

Yep.

Crista Cowan 23:25

And your dad, your dad's no idea. Or at least your dad never told you. Did your dad know?

Backlash And Belonging In Washington

Scott Pratt 23:32

Um, I don't, according to my dad, that he didn't know. Okay. Um, you know, and I don't want to speak too much out of turn, you know, because obviously that's his personal experience. I don't want to diminish him in any way, you know. There's no point at my dad is this brilliant man. I love my father to death, you know, love my mother to death. Um, I I will share the the from a family story one, and you know, he could be upset with me if he wants, you know, that he did he did grow an Afro in the 70s, and my understanding was that he was told to shave it off because it was racially insensitive. And this is coming from a man who my father was a I have to tell you, like my dad, uh my experience growing up, like I said, you know, he was a warrior, he was a race warrior. Um, my dad was the strongest man. My dad's six foot six. Whoa. And and whenever we hung out with black, you know, we had some black colleagues or whatever. If anybody said anything, that my dad would literally throw down like he was like it was a it was it was a fabric of who we were. So to even think that my dad would have, you know, any qualms about it, but it is, it's it's it's very different when it becomes this personal thing, and it's his mom and and his his grandfather, and you know, and the world, as much as we like to think the world has changed, we we all think it's changed. It really hasn't. There's a lot of underlying um, and I talked a lot about that. Um, Washington State is very unusual. I mean, they didn't want to run any like the whole the whole United States ran news stories about my family, right? They were so excited from New York, you know, we were on CBS, everybody, right? And Seattle didn't want to run it because they were afraid that maybe there was somebody in my family that was actually slave owners. And I'm like, I don't think Italian and Japanese were slave owners, right? You know, but okay, that's your consensus. Like there was this oversensitivity to it. Um, it's a very young area, it's not New York, you know. Like they have not caught up to where we are, you know, where we come from the melting pot. Where are you from, Krista?

Crista Cowan 25:48

Um, I am a fifth generation Los Angelino on my dad's side, but deep colonial. The melting pot. Deep deep southern roots, yeah.

Pride Mixed With Grief And Loss

Scott Pratt 25:56

Yeah, you get the melting pot. Like, you know, they haven't like assimilated here yet to that, but it's a you know, so and then you know, like I said, that and I noticed more things and people saying offhand in the comments. Uh least, you know, and so it's been uh um it's not it's we're not as progressive as we like to think we are. I mean, but that was not something that my that I ever observed in my family. My family both my mother and my father were champions of everyone, and that was a beautiful thing. So I guess in a way I inherited it, but I think now I've inherited a resiliency because this has been a challenge in certain circles in certain places. Um, I'm not accepted on either side of the coin. Does that make any sense?

Crista Cowan 26:50

Yeah, explain. I I think so, but explain it to me a little bit more what you mean.

Scott Pratt 26:55

Um in certain company when I'm very proud of my African heritage, right?

Crista Cowan 27:01

Like and of Sophia and her story, right?

Scott Pratt 27:04

Right. And so, like, you know, I've been at like, you know, I was really great because one of my friends invited me over to like this Nigerian party, and I had goat for the first time, and I was so excited because like I'm a foodie, right? So I'm like, I'm eating goat and it's delicious, right? And I'm like, you gotta give me the respiratory, and they're dancing, and like again, it was they were African, and we were I they they included me and we were dancing, and it was like I'd never been at a party like this. We were just dancing for the sake of dancing. It wasn't like we were going to a club, they just played music and everybody's dancing, and it was fun. Um, and then I'm in certain other circles, and they're like, Well, he thinks he's black now, right? And it's like, man, I'm I'm not trying to hijack your experience, not in anything, but don't steal my pride. Yeah, don't steal the thing that I have something to be extraordinarily proud of. I encourage people that have this um cultural situation. We need to be more sensitive to each other in that regard. And remember, we're all humans, and we're all, you know, we we have a humanity that we have to protect. It's not about color, it's about who we are as human beings.

Crista Cowan 28:17

So love the way that you've tried to incorporate this new part of your family story into your identity. I think that's amazing. It's also interesting. There's sometimes this thing that happens when people discover a new part of their story or a hidden part of their story. There's also sometimes a little bit of a feeling of loss. Like a loss of a loss of opportunity, a loss of connection, a loss of like like did you go through that? Are you still kind of dealing with that as well?

Scott Pratt 28:45

I'm dealing with that, Krista. You nail that you you actually articulated thank you so much. Thank you so much. That was touching, thank you. You are you know, you articulated it better than I could ever articulate it. 100%. There's a loss, there's a grief, there's a missing of years, there's a missing of, like I said, you know, like um, you know, there's the stories about my about my you know, my grandmother's family, and you know, um, there's stories about John Sassa and his experience, you know. Um, I don't have any of that. Yeah. And so yeah, there's a grief, there's a loss, there's a there's a hole. Um and I have been trying to fill it. Honestly, I have been trying to fill it. And that's where the discouragement comes in, like where when I bring up any pride and I tell the story, the confusion, you know, of like how I present, but who, but where my but where the tapestry of my life really originates from. They're two different things.

Crista Cowan 29:54

Yeah, yeah, they are. And it's so interesting as I listen to you talk, I can almost see you holding this in your hand, right? Like this Japanese grandfather on one side and this African-American great-grandmother on another side that was passing as white, and her father passed as white, and right, like the like, and then how you incorporate that into your own identity and try to figure out what that means for how you embrace those stories, how you learn more about them, where you can even go to do that, and what that means going forward, right?

Reinvention And A New Mission At Harvard

Scott Pratt 30:28

This is a this is a this is a story that's still unfolding, you know, and where where I fit in in this story, but where I definitely fit in is I have some very strong family members who were the most resilient women on the planet, and we're able to uh navigate a situation where I benefited, I got to go to what, you know, and and all I want to do is pass on the legacy if I can. And that was the whole point of me embracing this. And it's sad that sometimes I feel like I'm not accepted for like wanting to make a difference, and that's sad.

Crista Cowan 31:07

Yeah, it is sad, but it also feels like you have the resilience necessary to figure out what it means for you. And as you think about New York, Brooklyn in particular, but just New York in general, right? Like your Japanese grandfather really like like he found a way to reinvent himself. He integrated himself into this Italian family of strong women and and made that place his home. And then you got And they were some strong women, and then you've got this great-grandfather on the other side, Frank, going to Manhattan, making it in you know, the film industry, making an entertainer out of himself, passing to do it. He found a way to integrate, to reinvent himself and to tell his own story in the way he wanted to tell that. And now it seems like here you are doing the same thing. Maybe you need to go to New York.

Scott Pratt 32:04

You know, that's funny. Yeah, I think I'm a Brooklyn may be calling me because it's sure. Yeah, yeah. Um, so I just got accepted uh for a um I passed all the prerequisites, or they they allowed me to waive my prerequisites to be part of a program at Harvard, a master's extension program. I was just accepted to that. Congratulations. That's amazing. Thank you. In uh biomedical technology management. And my focus is going to be um, I'm actually gonna be working on my project, but my focus is going to be on on bringing you know skin of color into focus in dermatology and plastic surgery and and medicine in general. So um my roots are bringing me back for sure. The drawback to New York and Brooklyn and and Boston is you know, is definitely there. I don't think it'll ever leave. You know, it's always gonna be a part of me, no matter how. I I I've been here out in Seattle 20 years, and and as you can hear, the accent comes out of me every five seconds, even though I try not to. So, but thank you, Krista. This was you've you've navigated this really well and kind of uncovered some stuff, and it's been an emotional journey. And I I'm grateful to you for handling it in a respectful way. Yeah, absolutely.

Crista Cowan 33:26

Well, thank you for sharing it. I think it's an important story that people need to hear. That, you know, family history, a lot of who we are and how we identify in the world, how we move forward in the world and the stories that we tell. It it's wrapped up a lot in the stories of the people that came before us. And so when we come to know who they were, it it can be a journey to figure it out, but I think it gives us the tools that we need to figure it out.

Scott Pratt 33:50

Yeah, yeah. And I'm sure you've dealt with a lot of these people, you know, that have gone through similar experiences that I have. The one thing I can I can say is that um when you have the full story, it's way better than when you're trying to fill in the holes.

Crista Cowan 34:11

So well said.

Scott Pratt 34:14

You just feel like a part of you is missing, like there's a secret passenger. And I and and I think one of the the narrators for the theancestry.com had spoken about how our history makes up who we are. And um I think this conversation has really sealed the deal that I am uh I am a product of Marietta and Sophia and Frank and John Sassa and you know Marie Teferro and Marie LaRose and you know um Asa Pratt, who came here out of Brattleboro, New York, and he was like, you know, like you said, when it was still the French colony, so like you don't get any more American than that. Um I'm a product of all those things, and I'm I want to be able to be proud of it. And so thank you for giving me a forum to be to to express my pride in all of those people and who they are and what they represent to me, and how they all came together to make you.

Crista Cowan 35:18

Scott, thank you so much for being here with us.

Scott Pratt 35:22

Thank you.

Crista Cowan 35:24

Studio sponsored by Ancestry.