Be PROUD of you?
Would they UNDERSTAND YOUR LIFE?
16 October 2017
04 October 2017
WHO REALLY DISCOVERED AMERICA : ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY FILM REVIEW
Christopher Columbus? His day has gone bust, in part because Native Americans rightly say they were on the American Continent (North and South) well before he arrived. This film embraces the fact that there were possibly many excursions, by those sailing all sorts of ships from massive junks to simple canoes, that brought DNA into the America's which is the best evidence yet that people from Polynesia, China, Ireland, Norway, as well as, possibly, Hebrews, coming in to explore and some of them very likely had sex with individuals from previous populations.
As you probably know, the practice of genealogy relies on documents, but some people are having their DNA analyzed because of the matching services that usually come with having your hair, blood, bone marrow, or other body part analyzed. Sometimes you can pick up the trail that you lost if you are matched with a "cousin" who knows more that you. For many of us, the trail is lost after about three or four generations, but it is exciting to find out that in the deep past your people may have traveled the world, maybe by boat.
This film is exciting too because it brings the testimony of some experts who have made it their life's work to focus on micro-specialization, an assortment of archeologist, experts on how the ocean tides move ships, linguistics experts, people who can read ancient languages off rocks.
So here are some teasers!
Mysterious stones that are probably anchors from Chinese Junks have been found off the coast of Palos Verdes (Los Angeles) and in the 19th century the Chinese actually were fishing out there. Maybe these are older from 1000 years ago?
It's believed the Welsh made it. Could these be the blond haired "moon eyed" people who Cherokees interbred with the Mandan people. President Thomas Jefferson heard there were Welsh speaking Indians.
Are carbon-dated Chicken Bones evidence that the Polynesians made it thousands of miles in 60 foot canoes about 1000 AD?
And the Chumash Natives (who lived from about where Santa Barbara is now and north) have fish hooks and boat building, and linguistic links to Polynesians as well!
The Vikings, The Irish (Saint Brendan the Navigator) and the Hebrews can all make claims, and evidence would include particular forms of building under the earth or with stone.
IT'S THE CHEROKEE, Chief Joe Sitting Owl, of the CENTRAL band, who got DNA testing. Though only 1% of the Cherokee, Family Tree DNA did the work, and found no evidence of Hebrew or Jewish DNA. Most Hebrew/Jewish DNA is in the G, J, T, or E haplogroups. but he says don't let this sway you away from the truth.
My opinion: Maybe the Latter Day Saints can provide the funds for more Native American DNA testing, since their religious beliefs are that a Lost Tribe of Israel did make it to American. Paleo Hebrew inscriptions in stones may appear in New Mexico, but perhaps most convincing is that a carbon dated rock with Hebrew inscriptions has been found in a Cherokee burial ground.
01 October 2017
21 September 2017
THE RELUCTANT RELATIVE - FOSTERING and ADOPTING - WHO CARES WHO THE ANCESTORS ARE?
I am deeply impressed to learn that one of my relations became the single mom of six children as she adopted five of the many foster children she was presented. She lives in a state where adoption is inexpensive and where there is financial help for those who cannot afford to do so otherwise. This too impresses me.
Now a retired senior citizen, she recently told me that she's not much into genealogy. I'd hoped that she could share memories with me that she had, because I was way too young or not even born yet when she had them. What did she remember about certain relations who are a mystery to me? After some sharing, she told me that her genetic daughter is not interested and the other children who she adopted don't care about their birth families or the heritage of their adopted mother. Nobody is interested in searches or charts. The chances are good that searches - such as adoption registries - would bring up parents who were fairly local at the time, and might still be. She assures me that none of her children want the mess.
I thought it was brave of her to say all this in a matter of fact way, as she referred me to another family member who is "into" the family history and genealogy. I contacted that person more than once, but have not heard back. Meanwhile, I gave the oral history, all that I'd heard or knew, and what was on documents, to the reluctant relation.
I am not going to push.
No I'm not.
I've run into the brick wall that is another person many times.
As much as possible, I will respect her wishes.
I will never put anything on the Internet or in a database about her family.
Will one or all the children eventually change their minds?
I think it is possible, after she has passed on especially, as this is the one and only parent all of them have ever gotten to know.
Another issue with this person, if issue is the right word, is that she doesn't understand what little stories about a person's behavior or attitudes mean to me or people like me. Certainly one incident doesn't necessarily typify their entire life, but she found that one woman burned garlic to rid the house of evil spirits stupid, while to me it verified the woman's peasant beliefs, folk beliefs that mixed with her Catholicism. Ethnographic details can be extremely helpful also if you're trying to figure out someone's allegiance to their ethnicity. In some parts of the world where there were many tribes or ethnicities living near each other, at the time they certainly knew the beliefs, as well as clothing, food, language, and other differences people had.
C Ancestry Worship Genealogy All Rights Reserved 2017
Now a retired senior citizen, she recently told me that she's not much into genealogy. I'd hoped that she could share memories with me that she had, because I was way too young or not even born yet when she had them. What did she remember about certain relations who are a mystery to me? After some sharing, she told me that her genetic daughter is not interested and the other children who she adopted don't care about their birth families or the heritage of their adopted mother. Nobody is interested in searches or charts. The chances are good that searches - such as adoption registries - would bring up parents who were fairly local at the time, and might still be. She assures me that none of her children want the mess.
I thought it was brave of her to say all this in a matter of fact way, as she referred me to another family member who is "into" the family history and genealogy. I contacted that person more than once, but have not heard back. Meanwhile, I gave the oral history, all that I'd heard or knew, and what was on documents, to the reluctant relation.
I am not going to push.
No I'm not.
I've run into the brick wall that is another person many times.
As much as possible, I will respect her wishes.
I will never put anything on the Internet or in a database about her family.
Will one or all the children eventually change their minds?
I think it is possible, after she has passed on especially, as this is the one and only parent all of them have ever gotten to know.
Another issue with this person, if issue is the right word, is that she doesn't understand what little stories about a person's behavior or attitudes mean to me or people like me. Certainly one incident doesn't necessarily typify their entire life, but she found that one woman burned garlic to rid the house of evil spirits stupid, while to me it verified the woman's peasant beliefs, folk beliefs that mixed with her Catholicism. Ethnographic details can be extremely helpful also if you're trying to figure out someone's allegiance to their ethnicity. In some parts of the world where there were many tribes or ethnicities living near each other, at the time they certainly knew the beliefs, as well as clothing, food, language, and other differences people had.
C Ancestry Worship Genealogy All Rights Reserved 2017
16 September 2017
USING DAR LIBRARIES WHEN YOU'RE NOT IN DAR
Got to library.dar.org
Look up top for the GRC button and click on it
YOU WILL GET TO A SEARCH THROUGH GENEALOGY RECORDS THAT MEMBERS OF DAR TRANSCRIBED FROM BOOKS. They scanned the books and indexed.
EXCERPT: The DAR Genealogical Research System (GRS) is a free resource provided by the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution
(DAR) to aid general genealogical research and to assist with the DAR membership process. The GRS is a collection of databases that provide access to the many materials amassed by the DAR since its founding in 1890.
But nobody is saying you have to join DAR or that the information won't be valuable to you.
EXCERPT:
The GRC Reports themselves are digitized. Researchers may view the digital images at the DAR Library’s Seimes Technology Center. The images are not available at the present time online outside of DAR headquarters. The original typescript volumes have been retired and placed in off-site storage, so researchers must now use the digital images.
Look up top for the GRC button and click on it
YOU WILL GET TO A SEARCH THROUGH GENEALOGY RECORDS THAT MEMBERS OF DAR TRANSCRIBED FROM BOOKS. They scanned the books and indexed.
EXCERPT: The DAR Genealogical Research System (GRS) is a free resource provided by the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution
(DAR) to aid general genealogical research and to assist with the DAR membership process. The GRS is a collection of databases that provide access to the many materials amassed by the DAR since its founding in 1890. But nobody is saying you have to join DAR or that the information won't be valuable to you.
EXCERPT:
GRC
The DAR’s Genealogical Records Committee Reports began in 1913 and continue to arrive every year. The information in these 20,000 typescript volumes is predominately Bible record and cemetery record transcriptions along with many other types of transcribed or abstracted genealogical sources. The Genealogical Records Committee has sponsored a project since the late 1990s to index all names in every one of the GRC Reports in the DAR Library. The GRC tab provides a direct link to the “GRC National Index” and to the page explaining this project in more detail.The GRC Reports themselves are digitized. Researchers may view the digital images at the DAR Library’s Seimes Technology Center. The images are not available at the present time online outside of DAR headquarters. The original typescript volumes have been retired and placed in off-site storage, so researchers must now use the digital images.
06 September 2017
RADICAL VIEWPOINT ABOUT NAMING BABIES?
A new friend told me that he thinks that children who are named after someone exactly but with the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. after the name are abused by the naming. He feels that naming this way automatically puts too much expectation on the child, usually a boy, to follow in some ancestors footsteps. He says it's usually rich and influential families who name their sons this way, leaving little room for fulfilling one's own interests and talents; if the ancestor was a tycoon so should the child. He feels family pride is a detriment.
He was so sure of this opinion of his that I had to think about it.
I see what he means, I'm just not sure that he's right most of the time. That's because while naming this way is about class and culture - you could say tribal - I've found such children usually have nicknames that are rather cute and don't carry the burden of the descendant's name except on official forms in adulthood Some of their own friends don't even know that they are a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th. Also sometimes they choose to go through life with a second or third given name.
Then there's that there are families who are warm, loving, nurturing, and caring for their children and families who are not of all classes and cultures.
However, I did once know a man who was burdened by an authoritarian dad who was a star in the insurance business and disappointed in him because he got a Masters degree and became an English teacher! Though making a comparatively paltry salary, all his friends growing up who "had" still accepted him because they all figured he didn't really have to work and lived off inheritance.
For the genealogist, while a father's son is a Jr. And when the father dies, the son is no longer a Jr. But if he has a son named after him that son is Jr. A numbered name does not imply direct descent. A nephew can easily become a second. A grandchild a third. Some of the families with this tendency seem to recycle given names!
He was so sure of this opinion of his that I had to think about it.
I see what he means, I'm just not sure that he's right most of the time. That's because while naming this way is about class and culture - you could say tribal - I've found such children usually have nicknames that are rather cute and don't carry the burden of the descendant's name except on official forms in adulthood Some of their own friends don't even know that they are a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th. Also sometimes they choose to go through life with a second or third given name.
Then there's that there are families who are warm, loving, nurturing, and caring for their children and families who are not of all classes and cultures.
However, I did once know a man who was burdened by an authoritarian dad who was a star in the insurance business and disappointed in him because he got a Masters degree and became an English teacher! Though making a comparatively paltry salary, all his friends growing up who "had" still accepted him because they all figured he didn't really have to work and lived off inheritance.
For the genealogist, while a father's son is a Jr. And when the father dies, the son is no longer a Jr. But if he has a son named after him that son is Jr. A numbered name does not imply direct descent. A nephew can easily become a second. A grandchild a third. Some of the families with this tendency seem to recycle given names!
01 September 2017
15 August 2017
LATTER DAY SAINTS DISCONTINUE MICROFILM PROGRAM
September first of this year - just a couple weeks away - you will no longer be able to order microfilm from Salt Lake City's Family History Library/Archives to be sent to your nearest temple library. I have to tell you that I've talked to people at Genealogy Societies and at my public library and generally, people are panicked.
I guess my commentary that I would never be able to duplicate my research without these films to this day has not been heard.
What's up with LDS? Is it that not enough films are rented, making it financially impossible? They say that microfilm is dead, sort of like microfiche has been. Digitalized Computer Images are better. Well, digitalized images are computer dependent. And that forces you to own a computer or go to a public use computer. Believe me my cell phone and FamilySearch are compatible, but the screen is way too small to deal with all those digital images.
Read the fine print and you'll see that individual libraries are going to make decisions about what they keep when it comes to microfilm. Usually a fee is charged for the rental and then you can renew the film as you use it. What I see ahead shortly is some fast ordering by researches and a pile of last minute money to be made by LDS but also a gradual phasing out of the microfilms.
Latter Day Saints/Family Search says that by 2020, just a few years, everything they have to offer will be on their web site, Family Search. It's those few years that worry us completely. That seems almost impossible to me, considering that one category of film I use a lot has apparently been considered done by revealing baptismals, but not marriages or deaths; I keep checking. In the past I've made a great number of family groups by reading the births in a town, each consistent with parents, while not finding a marriage for the parents in that some town. Recently I spent an entire weekend on FamilySearch, playing games with crazy spellings, in order to see if I could find a marriage.
This was a personal quest and would be extremely expensive if was working it for someone else, and entirely speculative. The fact is, if the marriages were up, I could likely focus on just one or two villages, and work the births of children from there.
So I suspect something secret is going on with Latter Day Saints and the Genealogy Business in general. So far everything is free, and there is a lot of contributory work. One person I know who indexed for FamilySearch is livid to find out his work has been given over to Ancestry - a fee based site. He says if he had been asked he would have said no, but at least he wouldn't feel so disrespected.
LDS ORG on MICROFILM DISCONTINUATION ANNOUNCMENT READ THE OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT.
Another aspect of the wait until 2020 is that in that year the 1950 census should be at least begun, since the 70 year Privacy wait will be over. It will be a much larger project than the 1940 since this is the post World War II "babyboom" era.
From September 2017 till sometime in 2020 you can still pursue your genealogy but if what you need is not on the web site, don't forget the "old fashioned" methods!
C Ancestry Worship Genealogy Blogspot
I guess my commentary that I would never be able to duplicate my research without these films to this day has not been heard.
What's up with LDS? Is it that not enough films are rented, making it financially impossible? They say that microfilm is dead, sort of like microfiche has been. Digitalized Computer Images are better. Well, digitalized images are computer dependent. And that forces you to own a computer or go to a public use computer. Believe me my cell phone and FamilySearch are compatible, but the screen is way too small to deal with all those digital images.
Read the fine print and you'll see that individual libraries are going to make decisions about what they keep when it comes to microfilm. Usually a fee is charged for the rental and then you can renew the film as you use it. What I see ahead shortly is some fast ordering by researches and a pile of last minute money to be made by LDS but also a gradual phasing out of the microfilms.
Latter Day Saints/Family Search says that by 2020, just a few years, everything they have to offer will be on their web site, Family Search. It's those few years that worry us completely. That seems almost impossible to me, considering that one category of film I use a lot has apparently been considered done by revealing baptismals, but not marriages or deaths; I keep checking. In the past I've made a great number of family groups by reading the births in a town, each consistent with parents, while not finding a marriage for the parents in that some town. Recently I spent an entire weekend on FamilySearch, playing games with crazy spellings, in order to see if I could find a marriage.
This was a personal quest and would be extremely expensive if was working it for someone else, and entirely speculative. The fact is, if the marriages were up, I could likely focus on just one or two villages, and work the births of children from there.
So I suspect something secret is going on with Latter Day Saints and the Genealogy Business in general. So far everything is free, and there is a lot of contributory work. One person I know who indexed for FamilySearch is livid to find out his work has been given over to Ancestry - a fee based site. He says if he had been asked he would have said no, but at least he wouldn't feel so disrespected.
LDS ORG on MICROFILM DISCONTINUATION ANNOUNCMENT READ THE OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT.
Another aspect of the wait until 2020 is that in that year the 1950 census should be at least begun, since the 70 year Privacy wait will be over. It will be a much larger project than the 1940 since this is the post World War II "babyboom" era.
From September 2017 till sometime in 2020 you can still pursue your genealogy but if what you need is not on the web site, don't forget the "old fashioned" methods!
C Ancestry Worship Genealogy Blogspot
05 August 2017
WHAT'S IN A NAME CHANGE - WHAT MADES ME MAD - PART THREE
Use the Google Blogger search feature to bring up other posts on name changes, surnames, and part one and two of this tome!)
Besides ethnic pride and the discovery of roots, another reason for name changes, both given and surname, that I've encountered is numerology. In part one of this post on NAME CHANGES, I mentioned that it seems acceptable to change your name completely to have success in Hollywood. Well, believe it or not, some of those changes included the possibility that changing one's "numbers" would be good luck. Numerology is the study of how letters add up as numbers.
I've known people who take numerology seriously when naming their babies, naming a business, or renaming themselves, because they want a happier life. Imagine if you will growing up with a name that has felt truly impossible. You're wondering what your parents were thinking when they gave you that name. If you're really going to start over with a whole new name, why not take everything into consideration, even if it turns out there's nothing to it?
I've known artists and writers who have a career or "brand" name different from what's on their driver's license, and sometimes it's just so they can hide their other self and way of making money from a boss! (More difficult these days than ever to do.)
To me being able to make enough money and get past being in survival and subsistence and moving forward in your life is a great reason to change your name, and it doesn't imply that you're greedy, materialistic, or a jerk.
There's only one reason a name change is bad and wrong and that's when the intention is to hide criminal activity.
C 2017 Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot All Rights Reserved.
Besides ethnic pride and the discovery of roots, another reason for name changes, both given and surname, that I've encountered is numerology. In part one of this post on NAME CHANGES, I mentioned that it seems acceptable to change your name completely to have success in Hollywood. Well, believe it or not, some of those changes included the possibility that changing one's "numbers" would be good luck. Numerology is the study of how letters add up as numbers.
I've known people who take numerology seriously when naming their babies, naming a business, or renaming themselves, because they want a happier life. Imagine if you will growing up with a name that has felt truly impossible. You're wondering what your parents were thinking when they gave you that name. If you're really going to start over with a whole new name, why not take everything into consideration, even if it turns out there's nothing to it?
I've known artists and writers who have a career or "brand" name different from what's on their driver's license, and sometimes it's just so they can hide their other self and way of making money from a boss! (More difficult these days than ever to do.)
To me being able to make enough money and get past being in survival and subsistence and moving forward in your life is a great reason to change your name, and it doesn't imply that you're greedy, materialistic, or a jerk.
There's only one reason a name change is bad and wrong and that's when the intention is to hide criminal activity.
C 2017 Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot All Rights Reserved.
01 August 2017
27 July 2017
WHO SHOULD SHE SHARE HER GENEALOGY RESEARCH WITH? QUESTION FOR ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY
Hi there AWG!
Because of all the information available on the Internet I've easily found the addresses of a number of relatives who I've had no contact with in 20 or more years and all around the country too. I've done the genealogy and haven't shared it. I thought I'd publish a little book someday and send it out. Now I'm thinking that I should try and contact some of these people and establish connection again. The problem is that I stopped connecting with most of them years ago because of a family scandal which effected me badly. It seemed to me no one wanted to take sides or get involved or that I didn't want to put them in the position of having to. The perpetrator is still alive. I have no idea what her relationship is with others in the family.
Sharon
Answer:
Hi Sharon,
Without giving me all the details I can say I know what you mean. I've heard of situations like this many times. Every family has secrets and maybe some of them should stay secrets. Genealogy books can be "just the facts" or a bit more elaborate with memoir-like details and you might feel like letting it "all hang out" is honest (and accurate). However, I'm going to try and be pragmatic here.
You can have the book published and send out copies to everyone, some may be interested, some not, and some relationships may be reestablished. When they gossip they can say you were fair and sending EVERYONE a copy.
OR
You can contact everyone and say there is a book available and you'll be glad to send it, but request that they send a donation for the shipping, something like that, which might prove to you who is or isn't interested in the genealogy, appreciative of all your work, or who does not want to start contact with you for whatever reason.
OR
You could contact the people you feel more sure about and tell them you are working on a genealogy and family memoir book and ask for their memories, photos, and so on, including them in on the finished product, and a few of them will show interest and most won't, even if they say they will.
OR
You could publish limited editions of your book and put it on the shelves of libraries all over the country. Most libraries are interested. My city library keeps thousands, not in the stacks, but in back, to be used within the library by special request. (You could then send notes stating that your published genealogy and family history rests in their local library.) I intend to do this someday, and right now it will probably be in only four cities, but if I find clusters of relatives elsewhere, maybe more.
As for getting into what happened years ago and how it effected you, I understand that you equate the facts found in genealogy research through documents with truth and honesty, but I just don't know.
C 2017
Because of all the information available on the Internet I've easily found the addresses of a number of relatives who I've had no contact with in 20 or more years and all around the country too. I've done the genealogy and haven't shared it. I thought I'd publish a little book someday and send it out. Now I'm thinking that I should try and contact some of these people and establish connection again. The problem is that I stopped connecting with most of them years ago because of a family scandal which effected me badly. It seemed to me no one wanted to take sides or get involved or that I didn't want to put them in the position of having to. The perpetrator is still alive. I have no idea what her relationship is with others in the family.
Sharon
Answer:
Hi Sharon,
Without giving me all the details I can say I know what you mean. I've heard of situations like this many times. Every family has secrets and maybe some of them should stay secrets. Genealogy books can be "just the facts" or a bit more elaborate with memoir-like details and you might feel like letting it "all hang out" is honest (and accurate). However, I'm going to try and be pragmatic here.
You can have the book published and send out copies to everyone, some may be interested, some not, and some relationships may be reestablished. When they gossip they can say you were fair and sending EVERYONE a copy.
OR
You can contact everyone and say there is a book available and you'll be glad to send it, but request that they send a donation for the shipping, something like that, which might prove to you who is or isn't interested in the genealogy, appreciative of all your work, or who does not want to start contact with you for whatever reason.
OR
You could contact the people you feel more sure about and tell them you are working on a genealogy and family memoir book and ask for their memories, photos, and so on, including them in on the finished product, and a few of them will show interest and most won't, even if they say they will.
OR
You could publish limited editions of your book and put it on the shelves of libraries all over the country. Most libraries are interested. My city library keeps thousands, not in the stacks, but in back, to be used within the library by special request. (You could then send notes stating that your published genealogy and family history rests in their local library.) I intend to do this someday, and right now it will probably be in only four cities, but if I find clusters of relatives elsewhere, maybe more.
As for getting into what happened years ago and how it effected you, I understand that you equate the facts found in genealogy research through documents with truth and honesty, but I just don't know.
C 2017
22 July 2017
HALLOWED GROUNDS - AMERICA'S OVERSEAS CEMETERIES : ANCESTRY WORKSHIP GENEALOGY FILM REVIEW
HALLOWED GROUNDS focuses on the cemeteries in Europe where soldiers from World War I and World War II are buried. Turns out that simple crosses lined up like soldiers feature in most of these cemeteries. Most touching is that some Europeans have picked a soldier, learned of his sacrifice for their freedom, and have adopted him, bringing flowers since his own family is not likely to visit. These cemeteries are in England and France, Italy, Luxemberg, Belgium. Why was I surprised to learn that there are locations in Tunisia and the Philippines?
My meditation on this film was also that, sadly, we seem to be essentially hung up on World War II. What about Viet Nam? What about undeclared war? I think maybe if it's not officially a war than it can't have official heroes (and heroines!)
According to this film at least 125,000 American military men and women are buried in these cemeteries. Then there are so many more who are missing. Probably forever.
Worth watching!
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