Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday because of the three Fs: family, food, and football. These past couple of years I've been able to add one more "F" to the list - family history.

A few years ago I tried explaining to my children how their mother (my wife) and I are related because we both descend through Stephen Hopkins who sailed on the Mayflower. I'm not sure they quite understand how that makes my wife and I 13th cousins. However, one Thanksgiving a couple of years ago, we were reading a children's book, The Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dalgliesh, which recounted the story of Stephen Hopkins' family's trip to America aboard the Mayflower. I was stunned when my then-4-year-old said "Daddy, Stephen Hopkins is our ancestor!" Every Thanksgiving we now read The Thanksgiving Story.

We'd like to wish all of our Legacy Family Tree users a happy Thanksgiving. We're going to take a couple of days off and hope to enjoy family, food, football, and family history.