26 August 2010

FINDING BIRTH PARENTS or CHILDREN GIVEN UP FOR ADOPTION ON FACEBOOK :

Is FACEBOOK the best way to find a birth parent or the child you put up for adoption without having to do a lot of research and possibly battle for original birth certificates? 

Is this better than an adoption registration opportunity? You can link by clicking the title above to this TIME MAGAZINE article, from the August 16, 2010 edition by writer Belinda Luscombe to read about how one searcher found her birth mother in one day and was soon linked to her own child that she'd given up for adoption!

25 August 2010

WILLIAM and KATE - 12th COUSINS

Prince William and long time girlfriend Kate Middleton may or may not get married someday but for sure the royal genealogists are delving into her ancestry past and found that William and Kate are related to a man who lived about 12 generations ago...



LINK NOW to the full article that includes a chart by clicking to the link above! (Many articles but chose this one!)

15 August 2010

NATURALIZATION RECORDS SNAGFOOS!

Wouldn't it be nice if your immigrant ancestor came to America, got off a boat, went to the place they knew they could live and find work, and then stayed there - at least long enough to be naturalized as a citizen?

I know from experience that this is not to be counted on. In fact, you may be shocked at how many years it took for your ancestors to go ahead and become an American.

If you have no idea when they became naturalized... look at CENSUS evidence first. What? Every ten years a different year for NA (Naturalization) is written down? How could that be?

Common enough!

If the information you gleen from census is consistant, then it is probably correct and the YEAR of Naturalization is yours for the simple research. If however, it is not consistant, what could be the problem?

OK... sometimes ancestors were just as suspicious of census takers as some immigrants are NOW! ...and they lied. Sometimes they confused the filing of DECLARATION OF INTENT papers, with actually going through with Citizenship, and sometimes they were naturalized with a parent or husband... This was true almost all the time unless the WOMAN WAS WIDOWED before her husband could do it for himself, her, and the children. Women got the vote and THEN began to apply for themselves as a matter of course.

More often than not, recent immigrants - searching for good employment - simply did NOT STAY PUT in one place upon immigration. What this means is that they declared in one town and then went through the rest of the process elsewhere.

These are just some of the many possibilities.

Christine

10 August 2010

GENEALOGY SYNCHRONICITY ? I WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK TO THE SON OF LIPA TEPPER

I was just reading THE BOYS by MARTIN GILBERT and following the holocuast survivor testimony from LIPA TEPPER of Dukla, Poland. Wanting to know more about him I GOOGLED his name and up came a semi private blog (comments limited to members) posted by a man who I believe is his son ? AL TEPPER. There was an announcement there that LIPA had passed away surrounded by family.

I do not presently use Twitter, Facebook, or any of those social networks as I simply do not have the time to keep connections going that way. With my research and writing as extensive as it is these days, I have to make time for yoga class and swimming once in a while, just to move the physical plant my brain sits atop of.

However, I am looking for an e-mail address for AL TEPPER because I would really like to speak with him. I was really excited to see this picture of LIPA TEPPER and one of AL, especially as Al calls himself green and uses NAMASTE!

(Al if you are reading this, please contact me! My comments are set for me to approve first and you can leave an e-mail or other contact information for me on there, sure I will not publish it for the world to see!)

07 August 2010

BOOK EXCERPT THE RED QUEEN BY MATT RIDLEY

COURTLY LOVE
pages 218-219


"Human mating systems are greatly complicated by...inherited wealth... indeed in more stratified societies the poor often favor their daughters over their sons. But this is not because of certainly of paternity but because poor daughters are more likely to breed than poor sons. A feudal vassal's son had a good chance of remaining childless, while his sister was carted off to the local castle to be the fecund concubine of the resident lord... Sure enough, there is some evidence that in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in Bedforshire, peasants left more to their daughters than to their sons. In eighteenth-century Ostfriesland in Germany, farmers in stagnant populations had oddly female-biased families... It is hard to avoid the conclusion that third and fourth sons were a drain on the family unless there were new business opportunities....

"But at the top of society, the opposite prejudice prevailed. Medieval lords banished many of their daughters to nunneries... Through the world rich men have always favored their sons and often just one of them. A wealthy or powerful father, by leaving his status or the means to achieve it to his sons, is leaving them the wherewithal to become successful adulterers with many bastard sons. No such advantage could accrue to wealthy daughters... "

Harper Perennial is the publisher.
C 1993 by Matt Ridley