25 May 2016

CONEY ISLAND PREMMIE BABY EXHIBIT SAVED LIVES WHEN PEOPLE LET PREMMIE'S DIE

BBC MAG - HOW ONE MAN SAVED A GENERATION OF PREMATURE BABIES Pictures of the babies and Couney... and a full article.


Martin Couney, born in Krotoschen, Prussia in 1969, got married to Annabelle Segner in New York, in 1903.  In 1907 Annabelle gave birth to a daughter Hildegarde six weeks early and weighing just three pounds.  Keeping their daughter alive inspired them to help others.  Their incubators were ahead of the times, and thousands of babies were saved - the majority of the premmies who were turned over to them.  But our modern sensibilities are offended that the babies were shown on the Coney Island boardwalk for a 25 cent fee...

Just a note also, that the incubator babies were part of the set for the series Boardwalk Empire, which I recently binge watched for the first time and thought of as an excellent, extremely well written series.

21 May 2016

DO YOU BELIEVE YOU'RE CHEROKEE? WHY SO? DNA?

SLATE : WHY DO SO MANY AMERICANS BELIEVE THEY HAVE CHEROKEE ANCESTRY?  The history of a myth by Gregory D. Smithers

An excellent article about the history of the Cherokee and the history of the United States.  READ IT ALL!

I did an extensive genealogy project for a family that lived in Cherokee County and can say, without DNA testing, that there was intermarriage between some of the family and the local tribe, before and after the Trail of Tears, but I don't know that anyone who didn't go to live with the tribe has bothered with DNA testing.  One of the "White" family married a man on the rolls.  However, another couple married and had land in the area prior to the first missionary church...and do not appear on the rolls.

EXCERPT:

The Cherokee tradition of exogamous marriage, or marrying outside of one’s clan, evolved during the 17th and 18th centuries as Cherokees encountered Europeans on a more frequent basis. Some sought to solidify alliances with Europeans through intermarriage.
It is impossible to know the exact number of Cherokees who married Europeans during this period. But we know that Cherokees viewed intermarriage as both a diplomatic tool and as a means of incorporating Europeans into the reciprocal bonds of kinship. Eighteenth-century British traders often sought out Cherokee wives. For the trader, the marriage opened up new markets, with his Cherokee wife providing both companionship and entry access to items such as the deerskins coveted by Europeans. For Cherokees, intermarriage made it possible to secure reliable flows of European goods, such as metal and iron tools, guns, and clothing. The frequency with which the British reported interracial marriages among the Cherokees testifies to the sexual autonomy and political influence that Cherokee women enjoyed. It also gave rise to a mixed-race Cherokee population that appears to have been far larger than the racially mixed populations of neighboring tribes...

19 May 2016

ELLIS ISLAND CLERK AUGUSTUS SHERMAN's PHOTOS - THE BIRTH OF THE AMERICAN MELTING POT

DAILY MAIL - AUGUSTUS SHERMAN's ELLIS ISLAND PHOTOS


Dutch children in clogs, a Romanian piper with sheep skin cape, a Slovak woman and a Ruthenian woman in their best  embroidered dresses...


If you haven't seen these photos yet, you've missed out.


"Yet Sherman's notes offer only the most tantalizing of glimpses into the life of the immigrants risking it all to reach the Land of the Free.

One man, covered in tattoos, is simply referred to as a German stowaway by the amateur photographer. 


Sherman, born in 1865 in Lynn, Pennsylvania, never received any training as a photographer in an age where the art was still in its infancy.
But his incredible pictures serve as a historic tapestry of America's diverse beginnings.

In 1907, they were published in National Geographic magazine and framed versions hung on the walls of headquarters of the federal Immigration Service in Manhattan.
Today, they are now housed by the New York Public Library."

17 May 2016

THE 1939 REGISTRY - SPECIAL PRE WORLD WAR II CENSUS TAKEN IN ENGLAND AND WALES

THE GUARDIAN - 1939 REGISTRY - A TALE OF A COUNTRY ON THE EVE OF WORLD WAR  A SPECIAL CENSUS CONDUCTED in ENGLAND AND WALES before people started fleeing the bombings to the country or wherever!

EXCERPTS:

The population register, taken in late September 1939, just after after the outbreak of the second world war, is the only surviving record of the population of England and Wales between 1921 and 1951. The digital version was released on Monday by Findmypast in association with the National Archives.

The register, compiled by 65,000 enumerators and sent to every household in England and Wales, documents the lives of 41 million people. It gives the names of the inhabitants at each address, their date of birth, marital status and occupation.

...

The population register, taken in late September 1939, just after after the outbreak of the second world war, is the only surviving record of the population of England and Wales between 1921 and 1951. The digital version was released on Monday by Findmypast in association with the National Archives.  (In Great Britain not the U.S.)

The register, compiled by 65,000 enumerators and sent to every household in England and Wales, documents the lives of 41 million people. It gives the names of the inhabitants at each address, their date of birth, marital status and occupation.

11 May 2016

PRINCE WILLIAM JUST VISITED INDIA - HE CARRIES RARE MATERNAL DNA FROM INDIA

EXCERPT:
The genetic link with India is believed to originate from Williams’s great-great-great-great-great grandmother Eliza Kewark.

Although often described as Armenian, DNA analysis has revealed that she was at least half-Indian and is known to have lived in the country’s western region.

Scottish scientists established the link after discovering that Eliza’s descendants carried a rare strand of DNA - known as mitochondrial DNA - which can only be passed on by a mother.

Only people from the Indian subcontinent have been found to carry the particular strand of DNA. It has been recorded in 14 other people - all Indian, apart from one Nepalese native.

The DNA is thought to have been passed down to Prince William and his brother Harry, as the scientist behind the research described the genetic link as ‘unassailable’.

DAILY MAIL UK - CLEAR GENETIC LINE MOTHER's SIDE - PRINCE WILLIAM INDIA  by Mario Ledwith

06 May 2016

GILES FRASER ON THE SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA THAT SPAWNED SURNAME CHANGES in HIS JEWISH FAMILY

THE GUARDIAN - GILES FRASER - HAUNTED BY FAMILY'S PAST  by GILES FRASER

"The Lusitania sinking in all likelihood triggered the process by which the family rabbi became, a century later, the family priest."

EXCERPT:

When the Liverpool-registered ocean liner the RMS Lusitania was torpedoed by U-boats on 7 May 1915, the Rev Samuel Friedeberg was serving as a rabbi at the Princes Road synagogue in Liverpool. For days following the sinking, anti-German riots plagued the city. Shop windows were smashed and factories believed to be owned by Germans were attacked. Foreigners were roughed up on the street, often with little discrimination as to their place of origin.

The chief constable of Liverpool contacted the government to request the assistance of the army. A few months later, the Rev Friedeberg changed his surname to Frampton. Other parts of the family followed suit and became Freemans or Frasers. It became a pretty common thing to do. A few years later, Battenberg became Mountbatten.

For my family, the change of name occasioned by the public reaction to the sinking of the Lusitania, 99 years ago this week, was probably the crucial move in 300 years of cultural assimilation – a process by which the family rabbi became, a century later, the family priest. And this feels extremely odd, almost like something of a betrayal. I am Giles Fraser, son of Anthony, son of Harold, son of Louis, son of Mark, son of Moses, son of Jacob, son of Judah, son of David. All English Jews stretching back to the early 18th century.

03 May 2016

DO LDS MISSIONARIES AT FAMILY HISTORY CENTERS TRY TO CONVERT RESEARCHERS OF OTHER FAITHS?

Q:  My friends say I should start going to the closest Family History Center and order in films (to continue my genealogy research) but I'm not Christian and I hear that the missionaries there try to convert people.  I don't want to be rude but I don't want to talk religion.  I just want to do my work.
Do they really do that?

Michelle


A:  I think they do pray for people who are doing research at the Family History Centers when they go on breaks in the back room and take an active interest in you and your religious beliefs.  But that doesn't mean you have to bring it up or get into it with anyone. 

When you walk in they often ask if you are member of the church or not.  Answer honesty.  They're collecting stats on usage of the centers.  Also they have some resources that are open ONLY TO CHURCH MEMBERS and you have to respect that.  Additionally, we respect their religion and lifestyle beliefs by dressing modestly and not bringing coffee or caffeinated  tea or soda drinks with us when we bag our lunches.  We try to keep the area we're working in clean and neat and obey the rules of the library.

But then when you say no, you are NOT LDS,  they know then that you are not a member of LDS.  I can't say for sure that they will or won't try to convert  you, but the next questions is not "and so what religion are you?"  AS I UNDERSTAND IT, by opening those research centers that are so vital to many of us to EVERYONE, they are supposed to JUST LET YOU RESEARCH.  If anything the libraries are great PR for the church, because just about everyone (I say that having encountered a few stinkers over the years) that works there has been CHOSEN for a SPECIAL MISSION.  These people feel honored.  Many of them finance their own apartments to live away from their homes for a couple years in order to be there and be helpful.  Some are or have become expert genealogists, others not so much.

I know that many genealogy clubs and groups come into research, such as the local Jewish genealogy group, and don't seem to have any religious conflicts or issues.  I would like to think that is always the case, and that one of the things genealogy research teaches us is a respect for different beliefs and cultures.

These days due to the availability of some of the same electronic resources available at LDS at other libraries and societies, much of  your research work can be done without going to LDS but the microfilms they have are of great value!

AWG