As I was dialing my grandpa, I realized I had no clue about my ancestry line whatsoever. I'm super lucky to be able to grow up with four grandparents alive, and it sounds very self centered, but I never really considered the life that my grandparents lived before me. So, as my grandpa picks up the phone I became a little anxious because I didn't even know where he was born. Luckily, I'm consoled by the fact that when I asked him about his ancestors he couldn't recall where his grandpa was born. He did know it was somewhere in Germany though, and that's also where the name Ackerman comes from as well. He explained to me that our name was originally Akkerman, which, from Dutch, Akker translates to field. Therefore, his best guess is that we were farmers in Germany, and then immigrated to the United States some time around the late 1890s. I then asked him if being German, or having Ackerman as a last name has effected his life in any particular way...