09 August 2025

LIFE IN THE 1800's YOUTUBE STATION : PRESERVED TESTIMONIALS OF PEOPLE BORN IN THE 1800's

LIFE IN THE 1800's YOU TUBE STATION is my number one choice because it features film and audio of real people who were born in the 1800's. I was quite amazed that some of these films existed as filming then was far more expensive than it is now.


I hope these films will inspire you to do some of your own testimonials; interview on film or just let people talk.  

Titles include Civil War soldiers talking about fighting in the civil war, Bertrand Russel talking about his grandfather meeting Napoleon, once enslaved people talking about slavery,  a pardoned train robber, a witness to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the Wild Wild West and many more simply fascinating accounts.

LIFE IN THE 1800's YOU TUBE STATION : Day after Lincoln's Assassination  By going to this link you will be taken to the video and be able to go to other videos on the station.  Advertising exists on the videos.

Photographer Born In 1843 Talks About the Wild West - American Homesteaders


QUESTION FOR YOU!  DOES THIS INSPIRE YOU TO RECORD YOUR OWN TESTIMONIALS FOR YOUR DESCENDENTS?

C 2025 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot

07 August 2025

COMING UP : SOME YOUTUBE VIDEO STATIONS WORTH WATCHING FOR HISTORICAL RESEARCH

I recently found some YouTube stations that provide historical accounts that are truly interesting. 

I have a policy when it comes to YouTube videos for this blog. That is that I choose not to link to videos with embedding if the video starts, ends, or has in the middle advertising. This is because the advertising is annoying and disruptive and can change, so that it can become offensive. In the past I've encountered violent and/or explicit movie and cartoon ads, military weaponry being sold to the public, and other items I do not approve of and must shield my readers from. I'm told it is YouTube who makes the selection and the Station may have no say about what shows up. When I encountered a bible study that was interrupted with ads for personal men's products, I was convinced that's true.

I understand that many YouTube station owners work hard to create their videos and hope that the hits will result in some financial benefit as a result. Fair enough. Because I'm recommending these stations, I do hope the creators will experience more hits! 

C 2025 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot


04 August 2025

GENEALOGY QUESTIONS FROM READERS

  I do like to be helpful so feel free to leave QUESTIONS for me.  Just don't expect emergency responses!

02 August 2025

TRUE CRIME and DNA FOR SOLVING CRIMES : DNA and THE BRYAN KOHBERGER - IDAHO FOUR CASE : WHEN THE NIGHT COMES FALLING BOOK BY HOWARD BLUM

I'm not a devotee of True Crime, however, I got hooked on the Bryan Kohberger - Idaho Four murder case back when it happened. I recall it was Covid-19 closure time. I was home listening to the radio while doing some crocheting and was stunned to hear the news that four college students had been found murdered in their off campus rental house. 

It was a party house. A house where other students were drinking and who knows what else even when not one of the renters was actually home. That was dangerous. It was also dangerous, in my opinion, that all four were members of hard-partying sororities and fraternities; I dare say the word alcoholism seemed to have been censored from reportage. Excessive drinking to the point of beyond a little lit was going on. Also dangerous, in my opinion, was the social networking and postings that the girls did, in particular the two blondes, who posed adorably but also just within the limits of modern modesty. Did the whole world have to know how much fun they were having? Did they really need to give off so much personal information? Perhaps this was the relative naivety of Idaho and a small college-student reliant town? Or maybe I'm just too old to get it?

Strangely, the photos of the house that made it seem rather rural didn't show that they were actually right next to an apartment house and other houses.

Perhaps this particular crime story especially caught my interest because I had my own college experience living on a campus while trying to find off-campus housing. That experience of mine also made me furious when I heard some professionals, such as people who worked as detectives or for the FBI say some things about the suspect who'd been arrested, Bryan Kohberger, that was just stupid, such as that he majored in Criminal Justice to learn how to murder. I was once surrounded by grad students and these opinionated guests seemed to be without understanding of the demands of graduate work or the fact that many a grad student works as a TA - Teaching Assistant - and some of them are not great at teaching or reasonable on how they grade. This is especially true when a TA does not want to teach after they get their Phd.

Some podcasters and newscasters would talk about how Kohberger had failed to commit the perfect crime and get away with it and was actually dumb. Or he was accused of intellectual arrogance and was actually too smart. 

His right to be assumed guilty was over quickly. I didn't believe he could get a fair trial. 

Then, in July 2025, the man admitted he did commit the murders. I'm sure some of the investigators - as well as the taxpayers - were happy they had the right guy all along especially because millions had been spent. He got a plea deal that means he will not be executed by firing squad but spend his life in prison.

Back in 2022, I started searching for more information and I started to listen to YouTube videos - podcasts - about the murders, the investigation, the arrest, and all things Kohberger and the Idaho Four. When I heard that the whole case was circumstantial - though videos, cell phones, and other new technologies had been applied - it seemed that "touch DNA" in the metal button of the knife sheath was the most important thing connecting the man to the crime.

When The Night Comes Falling is the book I read recently with an eagerness to know more than I had heard on YouTube podcasts, having listened to an easy hundred hours of discussion, speculation, or reportage, of these since the murders, November 13, 2022.

So yes, there were a few things in Howard Blum's book that I had not heard before. 

Blum intimates that Bryan's father had grown suspicious that his son had become a murderer - but that was unthinkable. Another is that that DNA Bryan was packing up in little plastic bags and taking to the neighbor's trash cans in the middle of the night was his dad's not his. And that some other relative of theirs had posted on a genealogy database that lead to the dad. 

I also was amazed that touch DNA is based on a very small number of skin cells, especially considering that we're shedding skin cells wherever we go. Honestly, a speck of dandruff has more than the shed of a quick touch of finger! 

Kaylee was only home for a visit and had already moved out. She wanted to see friends and party and perhaps also reignite her on and off relationship with a boyfriend that she had ended. They still shared a dog but she was going to travel in Europe and then take a job in another state. Jack was a suspect and went through some investigation but was quickly considered innocent of any involvement.

Maddy was the target and there's a question as to when Bryan began to fixate on her but maybe he did eat at the Mad Greek where she waitressed once though no one remembers that. 

Ethan and Xana were likely as unexpected in the house as Kaylee was but then at least one of them went to see what the noise was. 

Two of the victims fought for their lives - Kaylee and Xana. 

The FBI had a small airplane following Bryan and his dad as they traveled back to Pennsylvania in his car during what was to be a month long school break. Bryan left before the letter stating that he had been let go as a TA was received so he didn't know that yet, and he talked to his dad about some difficulties and said no way would the university be able to just let him go. The FBI did not tell the other investigative entities such as the police know they were leading the case. It was the Indiana traffic stops that made the FBI think another investigate entity had come to the same conclusion they had. His dad had driven out with him in the first place. (I never thought having a companion for a long drive was a bad idea.)

Of course, the gag order has been lifted since Kohberger admitted he was the murderer. This means that some of the speculation will end because more facts will come out but I wonder, because so this case has spawned so much news when it will actually fade away. It seems to me that a lot of podcasters will have to move on to other murders. I sometimes wonder what will be as compelling to their listeners.

My curiosity about how our legal system works - or how it does not - will continue, as will my interest in how investigations are conducted.

***

TRUE CRIME : My number one favorite is/was Surviving the Survivor. I also listened to Grizzly True Crime, which is probably my number two. I listened to Harsh Reality, one of the stations that maintained some doubt or questioning about Bryan Kohberger being the murderer. I have to warn you that a turn off is the hosts use of foul language.

01 August 2025

ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY BLOGSPOT


Our genetic and spiritual ancestors help us with our research quests 
and, while we follow a linear research path, 
amazing dreams and synchronicity abound. 

We explore multicultural ancestry worship 
and the use of genealogy for past-life verification, 
as well as practical ways and means to achieve your research goals.

28 July 2025

NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF PORTUGAL : Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo : INCLUDES A WORLD WAR II HOLOCAUST COLLECTION


Portugal has been in the media quite a bit lately, as a good place to move to, but somehow the history of the country seems obscure to me. The country's archive goes back into the mid 1600's and yes, there is a digital archive porthole for your research to begin.  A special note is that Portugal has a World War II Holocaust Collection. I was humored to read that the archive page mentions there are two bars nearby!

PORTAL EHRI PROJECT EU PORTUGAL


Link to the Holocaust Collection : PORTAL EHRI JEWISH HOLOCAUST COLLECTIONS

C 2025 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot

25 July 2025

NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF SPAIN : Archivo Histórico Naciona : DIGITALIZED RESOURCES UNIFY VARIOUS ARCHIVE LOCATIONS


I haven't had anyone from Central or South America ask me to do their research so I'm not experienced in the specifics by country, but I do know that many families who are from Mexico or other "Latin" countries have ancestry in Spain. Spain was in the Americas while colonies on the eastern seaboard of Colonial America struggled. Like, Italy or France, Roman Catholic archives are also useful to any family history or genealogy quest in Spain. Like some other countries, the actual physical archives are in various departments/places but there is a more unifying porthole. The main branches of the National Archives of Spain include the General Archive of the Indies in Seville, the National Historical Archives in Madrid, the General Administrative Archives in Alcala de Henares, and the General Archive of Simancas.

Excerpt:

Portal de Archivos Españoles (PARES) is a documentary archive established and hosted by the Spanish Ministry of Education. It offers free access to digitized images of the Spanish Archives.

Here's where you go to find digitalized images from the archives: PARES CULTURA GOB SPAIN : DIGITAL NATIONAL ARCHIVES

At another time I'll get to posting archives in Central and South America, but for now, let's continue to focus of Europe.

C 2025 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot

22 July 2025

NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF ITALY : Archivio Centrale dello Stato : FAMILY HISTORIES - CIVIL REGISTRY - MILITARY ENLISTMENT

Italy is the home of a number of archives, including Roman Catholic Church archives, that are useful to genealogists. However, knowing the desire for genealogy oriented documents, the country has established a resource just for genealogy.

As you may know, Italians coming into the United States would often say they were Calabrese, or Sicilian, rather than Italian. Risorgimento is the word for the Unification which happened about 1861 but ethnic self identity continued in this way.

ANTENATI CULTURA GOV (ITALY GENEALOGY)

This archive has records before the Unification of Italy.

Excerpt on holdings:

The State Archives hold many private and public sources that are essential to the genealogical research and the History of some families and persons. The main sources are: The Civil Registry together with the attached 1 year and 10 year origin indexes. Enlistment and military career documentation (e.g. Conscription Lists and Military Records) Notary public archives, family and personal archives....

As always, explore the site and don't hesitate to contact an archivist!

C 2025 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot

19 July 2025

THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF FRANCE : THE FRENCH REVOLUTION and AMERICAN HISTORY TOO

ARCHIVES OF FRANCE  see the language selection EN for English  SP for Spanish FR for French


Want to research the French Revolution, Napoleon, or perhaps Thomas Jefferson in Paris? THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF FRANCE is a great place to research American History too! 

Excerpt: The Archives Nationales, a civic-minded institution for France's collective history. The Archives Nationales was created by decree of the National Constituent Assembly in 1790. It has three sites (in Paris, Pierrefitte-sur-Seine, and Fontainebleau) whose role is to collect, preserve, and provide access to documents produced by the central administrations of State since the 7th century.



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16 July 2025

NATIONAL ARCHIVES : DON'T FORGET TO USE THESE FANTASTIC RESOURCES

Last fall (2024), I posted links to the National Archives of Scotland, Ireland, Wales, England, Great Britain, Canada, and Australia. Now I'm going to provide you links to some European National Archives that are also useful. Databases do not have everything and I think some researchers have forgotten about the archives of nations.

Some countries are newer at having National Archive resources digitized. YOU WILL WANT TO INTERACT WITH THEIR ARCHIVISTS IF YOU HAVE MORE QUESTIONS and perhaps, the old fashioned way, send for copies or pay them to research for you.  Contacting an archivist is usually possible through e-mail. Some will ask you to set up an account, others not.

I use Google translate function when the site does not provide language options!

C 2025 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot


12 July 2025

PROQUEST HISTORY VAULT - HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION IS ALSO LABOR HISTORY

These days, so much about immigration - legal and illegal.  With Labor Day coming up I thought you might be interested in learning more American history because labor in the United States has always been tied in with immigration.

https://congressional.proquest.com/historyvault

Includes history of Immigration and Naturalization Service...

Read about anarchism, labor strikes, subversive and illegal aliens - deportations and expulsions.

I use this at a genealogy library... check to see if your library makes Proquest History Vault available to library card holders at no charge.

C 2025 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot


01 July 2025

ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY BLOGSPOT


Our genetic and spiritual ancestors help us with our research quests 
and, while we follow a linear research path, 
amazing dreams and synchronicity abound. 

We explore multicultural ancestry worship 
and the use of genealogy for past-life verification, 
as well as practical ways and means to achieve your research goals.

21 June 2025

CITIZENSHIP : UNITED STATES OF AMERICA : #4 COLONIALS WHO BECAME CITIZENS OF THE NEW UNITED STATES : REVOKING BRITISH CITIZENSHIP and BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP

UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION : CONSTITUTION ANNOTATED

Here's an excerpt: Read the whole article at the link!

During the eighteenth century and prior to American independence, the British Parliament passed laws that allowed certain foreign nationals to naturalize and become subjects if they met specific requirements under those laws. For instance, a 1709 law allowed the naturalization of foreign Protestants who took an oath of allegiance and paid a small fee.8 More significantly for the American colonies, in 1740, the British Parliament passed a law that uniformly provided for the naturalization of any foreign national residing in a British colony for at least seven years, effectively superseding the naturalization policies of the individual colonies.


image of Lady Liberty is from GraphicsFairy

17 June 2025

CITIZENSHIP : UNITED STATES OF AMERICA : #3 EVOLUTION OF THE DECLARATION OF INTENT "FIRST PAPERS" : IS CITIZENSHIP A RIGHT OF BIRTH IN THE UNITED STATES

 ARCHIVES GOV : HISTORY OF THE DECLARATION OF INTENT (CITIZENSHIP)

Read here about the changes through history and the Old Law (1795 till 1906) in which various courts had different forms, and the New Law (in which the forms were unified).

The "3 papers" we often seek were in general from 1906 until 1952.

Excerpt: Waiting Period between filing the Declaration of Intent and more paperwork.

January 29, 1795 and June 17, 17983 years
June 18, 1798 and April 13, 18025 years
April 14, 1802 and May 25, 18243 years
May 26, 1824 and December 23, 19522 years

Remember that filing a Declaration of Intent does not meant the person(s) followed through and actually became citizens.

Check by state for "walk into the courthouse and swear on a Bible" Citizenship. A typical walk in would be a person who just turned 18, who was brought into the country by immigrant parents (or who was born in the country to them) and they didn't complete the process due to their deaths or some other factor. Such a person and their situation was usually known to the community.

Has BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP in THE UNITED STATES CONSITUTION - The 14th Amendment - always been interpreted the same way? 

This has become controversial.

Here is a link to THE FEDERAL REGISTER at the NATIONAL ARCHIVES (NARA), a Daily Journal of the United States Government in which President Donald Trump's notions have been published: A Presidential Document by the Executive Office of the President on 1/29/2025

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/01/29/2025-02007/protecting-the-meaning-and-value-of-american-citizenship

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15 June 2025

A FATHER NURTURES A SON'S INTERESTS


 It's not easy to find a free downloadable vintage public domain image

 of a father nurturing a son.

I think the dearth of these images, compared to those available

 for mothers and Mother's Day, is telling. 

 

 


 

12 June 2025

WORLD ELDER ABUSE AWARENESS DAY COMING UP JUNE 15th : USC CENTER FOR ELDER JUSTICE

ELDERMISTREATENT USC EDU - JUNE 15 2025 

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD) was launched by the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse and the World Health Organization at the United Nations. The purpose of WEAAD is to provide an opportunity for communities around the world to promote a better understanding of abuse and neglect of older persons by raising awareness of the cultural, social, economic and demographic processes affecting elder abuse and neglect.


image of grandma from Graphics Fairy

10 June 2025

CITIZENSHIP : UNITED STATES OF AMERICA : RESEARCHING DEPORTATION RECORDS? : U.S. CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES #2 (LOTS OF GOOD STUFF!)

USCIS : FEE BASED DEPORTATION SERVICE 

Yes you do have to pay a fee for their research but there are exemptions.

There is way more here at the USCIS than DEPORTATION:

WHY MIGHT REQUESTING THE FILES FOR YOUR ANCESTORS TURN OUT TO HAVE MORE THAN ANY DATABASE? (My question.)

 Excerpt:

The question is important because it speaks to the most common misconception about USCIS historical records, namely that USCIS C-files are exact duplicates of court records. Yet C-Files are not exact duplicates of court records for three reasons:

1. Technically, the duplication is not exact because C-Files contain a copy of the naturalization certificate issued to the new citizen in addition to duplicate court forms. That said, if the C-File contains only a certificate, petition for naturalization, and declaration of intention, researchers might consider that C-File as little more than a duplicate of court records available from the National Archives (NARA) or from a courthouse.

2. Not all C-Files are small. Millions of C-Files contain a variety of additional forms and documents generated before or after the naturalization date. To see some examples visit the C-Files Image GalleryPlease go to this link as it lists a number of documents that might be especially interesting, some I personally had not encountered.

3. Many C-Files relate to citizenship, not naturalization, and so contain no court records at all. For example, minor children listed on a father’s petition could later apply for their own certificate of citizenship, creating a derivative C-File. Read more about Naturalization Records Not Duplicated in Court Records, or review our table of Certificate Series showing the series-specific numbering.

It could be terrific to have a copy of the ancestors actual CERTIFICATE, which might have a photo of them.

Give this site some attention.  There is a lot to learn! 

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07 June 2025

CITIZENSHIP : UNITED STATES OF AMERICA : CITIZENSHIP RESEARCH BE HELPFUL TO YOUR GENEALOGY QUEST and FAMILY HISTORY STORY : REQUIREMENTS FOR CITIZENSHIP CHANGED! #1

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA : 

CAN CITIZENSHIP RESEARCH BE HELPFUL TO YOUR GENEALOGY QUEST?

THE ANSWER IS YES.

I think we should include a bit about what the citizenship laws were at the time our ancestors applied for citizenship, which might vary by state, and how they perhaps changed while in process. This can add some understanding to the history they lived through and the attitudes that prevailed about immigrants, ethnicity, and gender. 

You might be surprised at how long it took.

After the American Revolution, people might have not needed a Visa to enter the colonies, but simply have been sworn in after spending a number of years, which might be seven years or more, in which they proved themselves to be self-supporting and good neighbors (rather than criminal). 

The general term for this is "One Paper" naturalization.

Prior to that, if one lived in a state that was ruled by Great Britain, then they might have declared their citizenship as British - though they came from Germany. (And then they would, though having come from Germany and had a German surname, give up allegiance to the British King or Queen, rather than a German one.)

Recall that Great Immigration period caused by the Industrial Revolution, at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, in which people moved from agricultural work to factories. For some time there was a process which started with "First Papers" called "Declaration of Intent." The Declaration in itself had to be updated if there was a change of address or more children were born, or if someone died. The process had to be kept up with, as it was considered suspicious if more than seven years went by and there was no further contact.  "Final Papers" are the NATURALIZATION ("Citizenship") papers.

Perhaps because they were Italian - or another "suspicious" ethnicity, an immigrant's citizenship applications were frozen because of World War I. You'll notice it's well after that war before the processing for them continues.

For some time it was only the Head of Household who could apply, implied is a husband, and when he got the citizenship it was for the whole family, his wife and children who were not yet adults. A widowed head of household could apply for herself and her children.

And then there were the women who would loose their citizenship if they married a man who was not a citizen.  (I consider that one particularly draconian!)

Women got the vote.  And with that came the right and responsibility for adult women to apply for their own citizenship.  But check by state because, for instance, women were allowed to vote in Wyoming in 1869, and Utah in 1870 for elections that were not national.

Try on this less thought of scenario.  Your ancestor came to the United States and was DEPORTED.

Yes it happened.

Or this one: THEY GAVE UP THEIR U.S. CITIZENSHIP BUT CHANGED THEIR MIND, and had to be REPATRIATED.

On the next couple posts I'm going to refer you to some web sites where you can find out more!

C 2025  Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot  All Rights Reserved Including Internet and International Rights


01 June 2025

ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY BLOGSPOT


Our genetic and spiritual ancestors help us with our research quests 
and, while we follow a linear research path, 
amazing dreams and synchronicity abound. 

We explore multicultural ancestry worship 
and the use of genealogy for past-life verification, 
as well as practical ways and means to achieve your research goals.

24 May 2025

SCOTLAND CLANS : BUY A SQUARE FOOT - HAVE SOME FUN WITH YOUR NEW LORD OR LADY TITLE - VISIT THE PRESERVE! VERY COOL!

I found this web site, which is commercial - selling plots of land in Scotland ie "Become a Lord or Lady Now" ! I must say that the preservation of clan history, maps, and so on here is impressive, so OK, a link to them and some hits for them are in order.... HIGHLAND TITLES COM  You can buy a  square foot plot of land in Kilnaish and see your plot of Google Maps... No, they have not solicited me or paid me for an ad.

Excerpt:  Clearly, our small family business is in no position to bestow honours in the way that the reigning Monarch can do, but our “Laird/Lord/Lady of the Glen” titles are far from meaningless. Gifts are highly personal in nature. No one person is in a position to say whether a gift is with or without meaning. To do so would constitute a breathtaking feat of arrogance.

  • For some of our customers, our gift is fun. That fun has meaning.
  • For others, it’s romantic. That has meaning.
  • For many, it’s a way of strengthening their ties with Scotland. That has meaning.
  • We can say without any doubt that our Lairds, Lords and Ladies have helped us create a real feeling of community amongst our customers.
  • Tens of thousands of our customers have visited their plots and met with our team on the land. They have seen the huge amount of work we have put into creating one of the most popular nature reserves in the country, including an official Guinness World Record for World’s Biggest Bug Hotel!

Highland Titles now manages more than 800 acres in the beautiful highlands of Scotland, and the nature reserve at Duror, near Glencoe, is one of the most popular nature reserves in Scotland.

***

OK FREE TO USE MAPS are available on this site.

 
Some good information and an opportunity to see the tartan.

21 May 2025

THE INDIAN CARD : OTHER CRITERIA FOR TRIBAL ENROLLMENT? DNA TESTS?

THE INDIAN CARD by CARRIE LOWRY SCHUETTPELZ

Excerpt page 24 : In addition to lineage and blood quantum, some Tribes add other criteria to the mix.  Some have requirements around culture and tradition - my own Tribe, the Lumbee, for example, now requires completion of that Lumbee history class before someone can enroll. A handful of Tribes take into consideration which side of your family your Native ancestry is on. Some Tribes require applicants to enroll within a certain period after their birth.  Some maintain a residency requirement: the applicant must have been born or currently reside on the Tribe's lands.

... In recent years, and with the advent of consumer ancestry tests, a misconception has emerged that DNA spit tests can be used to gain Tribal enrollment.  That's not quite true.  No federally recognized Tribe in the United States allows someone to apply for enrollment using just their 23andMe report. Tribes that use DNA tests in their enrollment processes generally do so for maternity or paternity purposes - that is, to determine a person's biological parentage.

(For people were not born in or residing in their Tribal Community. (I note, in common language, "on the reservation" do an enrollment application.) ... Usually an extensive family tree must be filled out usually, historical birth certificates of ancestors must be submitted. Often the process must be completed in person. ...

Excerpt page 25 : ... One of the biggest obstacles people face with Tribal enrollment is verifying their ancestry. It is generally the case that Tribes don't release their historical rolls to the public. Certainly, from a sovereignty perspective, this makes sense. After all, the U.S. government doesn't maintain a public-facing list of all its current citizens. I can think of  a hundred reasons this sort of public cataloguing would be problematic. The same goes for Tribes.

Lesson: For Native American Tribes, citizenship is never geographical.  It's always relational.

PUBLIC NATIVE AMERICAN ROLES (Commonly called THE FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES)
Cherokee Nation
Chickasaw Nation
Seminole of Oklahoma
Choctow of Oklahoma
Muscokee (Creek) Nation

According to an expert of the Chickasaw Nation, the further from these roles (called The Dawes Rolls) they get, the harder it is to prove Native Tribal affiliation.... And some people with common names erroneously "prove" they are not

Notes:  Author Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz also discusses the founding of the United States census and the evolution of questions asked. Until the 1850 census race was not asked. She explores the question of dismissiveness and also racism. She brings up the Nazi's and extermination of a people, her visit to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, dealing with National Archives and Record Administration.  She explores treaties and agreements between tribes and government and also individuals.  

Again, I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the history or the genealogy!

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Book Review and Excerpt selections
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17 May 2025

THE INDIAN CARD : UNDERSTANDING A TRIBE'S ENROLLMENT PROCESS : LINEAGE OR HOW MUCH ANCESTRY? FIRST STEP IS TRIBAL CONSTITUTION

THE INDIAN CARD by CARRIE LOWRY SCHUETTPELZ

Excerpt: page 21: To understand a Tribe's enrollment process, the first place to look is at its constitution. Not every Tribe has a constitution, but for those that do, the section related to enrollment is generally right p front.  It's an important element of the systems that Tribes have put into place - the element of defining membership.

Together with my research assistants, I am able to locate 285 tribal constitutions.  That is, for all but 62 federally recognized Native American tribes in the continuous United States, we find some sort of official document - called a constitution and outlining its principles and procedures - that was passed by the Tribe's leadership.  Some constitutions are relatively recant: the Kowa Indian Tribe of Oklahoma passed is most recent constitution in 2017. Some date back centuries : The Choctaw Nation first passed its constitution in 1826 although the Tribe currently operates under a constitution ratified in 1983.

Page 22 Excerpt about Tribes without a constitution. .... One notable exception is the Navajo Nation, whose enrolled population hovers around four hundred thousand members...

Page 22: Regardless of whether a Tribe has a formal constitution or has opted for alternative systems and processes, most have an enrollment office - sometimes a fully staffed organization, sometimes one person located inside the Tribes' government office; sometimes it's a person who doesn't earn a salary from the Tribe, but who serves in the role as a volunteer or an elected official..

TRIBAL MEMERSHIP BASED ON LINEAGE OR HOW MUCH ANCESTRY

Excerpts page 22-23 : ... Specifically; with regard to determining membership, Native American Tribes fall into one of two categories.  For about 120 Tribes for which I can find information, Tribal enrollment is based on lineage. That is, in order to enroll in the Tribe, an applicant must demonstrate that a direct relative (a parent, grandparent, great-grandparents, etc.) was a member of the Tribe. Tribes use a census or roll particular to their community as the basis for this determination.

Note: SOME TRIBES HAVE THEIR OWN CENSUS ROLLS, so the "CIVILIZED TRIBE" ROLLS ARE NOT THE ONLY ROLLS OF TRIBAL CENSUS AVAILABLE, but these others are held within the tribe...

Excerpts page 22-23 : The other main way that Native American Tribes determine memberships by using a calculation of how much ancestry a person has from that particular Tribe. This number is usually represented as a fraction, and usually called blood quantum.  For about 170 Tribes for which I find information, Tribal enrollment is based on blood quantum.  And for the vast majority of those, the blood quantum calculation is made from one Tribe alone...   

Sure, they can have a blood quantum from other Tribes, but it won't be factored into the calculation. No Tribes in the contiguous United States, that I can find, have a four-fourth blood quantum requirement; most, or about 69 percent of those that use blood quantum, use one-fourth as their cutoff; you must prove that you have at least one-fourth blood quantum from that Tribe alone.

The requisite blood quantum can be achieved a few different ways. For example if someone wanted to enroll in the Oneida Nation, whose requirement is one-quarter blood quantum, they would need to demonstrate that amount through one or several ancestors...

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Book Review and Excerpt selections
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14 May 2025

THE INDIAN CARD : SELF IDENTIFYING AS NATIVE AMERICAN : THE CHEROKEE and also MISINFORMATION BY FAMILY : ANCESTRY WORSHIP BOOK REVIEW

THE INDIAN CARD by CARRIE LOWRY SCHUETTPELZ

Excerpt page 2: Self-identifying, though, is just one piece of a very convoluted puzzle. In the United States, there are myriad ways a Native person may be required to demonstrate their identity. That list includes Tribal enrollment. Yet, at the same time that the number of people self-identifying as Native in this country has increased to over 9.7 million, the number of people enrolled in Tribes is much, much lower.

This nuance is particularly pronounced among people who identify as Cherokee.  As of 2023, just over 450,000 people were formally enrolled members (called citizens) of the Cherokee Nation.  That is, 450.000 people have some sort of card, which they applied for and received through the process the Cherokee nation determined.  Another (approximately 14,000 people are enrolled in the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma. Together, about 480,000 people in this country are enrolled in one of three federally recognized Cherokee Tribes.

Excerpt pages 2-3 : Scholars have written a lot about this phenomenon - that because of  complex issues that includes patterns of disconnection, relocation, and misrepresentation in family lore, the number of people claiming Cherokee heritage is very high. But we see this not just with Cherokee. This same gap, between claiming Native identity and being formally verified as having it, exists for many other Tribes in the United States.


As a note, in my experience a number of persons I've met who self -identify as African-American (Black) have been told there is an "Indian Princess" in their heritage. I've seen photos of ancestors who lived in the South in which some children appear to be "White" and others appear to be ? On the census they are listed as Mulatto, but in fact the family was a mix of Cherokee and Scotts-Irish or British pioneers. DNA tests I've heard about from those person told the "Indian Princess" story have proven that to be just a story. This is admittedly a small sampling of possibilities.

THE CONCEPT OF SOVEREIGNTY

Excerpt page 8 "One of the primary reasons that enrollment, why Tribal membership, exists is because of the underling principle of Tribal sovereignty.  For Native American Tribes, sovereignty is boss.  I's king.  Sovereignty is the key that opens all the doors.  It's the thing upon which all other things rest.  Throughout Indian Country, sovereignty is the shared love language.  To understand any Native person's story, its important to understand the concept of sovereignty.

Over the last 250 years, the U.S. government has ping-ponged between full-scale "termination" of Native peoples to (alleged) protectionism of them to everything in between.  And often what has been at stake - besides the obvious human lives and land rights - is sovereignty. That is, in losing their land and, often, their lives, Tribes have clung to their rights of self-determination for continued survival.

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Book Review and Excerpt selections
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11 May 2025

ROCKING THE CRADLE

One foot out to rock the baby cradle at the bow, 
while sewing with two hands, 
a woman's work is never done.
in this vintage illustration provided by Graphics Fairy.

What memories do you have of your own mother. grandmother, and aunts?



07 May 2025

THE INDIAN CARD by CARRIE LOWRY SCHUETTPELZ : ANCESTRY WORSHIP BLOGSPOT BOOK REVIEW (AND A LIST OF TRIBES MENTIONED IN THE BOOK)

THE INDIAN CARD by CARRIE LOWRY SCHUETTPELZ

In this blog I sometimes post about Native American as well as African-American research as UNITED STATES OF AMERICA / AMERICAN research. From the hits I get on posts about Native American ancestry, I know that some of my readers are interested in making a claim to be considered "a member of the tribe." But I may have said this before; I have never gotten cooperation from the few tribes I've contacted, hoping that someone on that side would help a client become a member of the tribe. In the years since, as the Internet grew, more tribes have websites that provide information on what they consider and how they process enrollment, which is helpful. I've heard various "reasons why" some tribes are not helpful, including that those who have rights to money from casinos do not want to further share it. I'm always interested in what the processes to claim tribal membership might be.

The Indian Card, subtitled Who Gets To Be Native American, is a book about tribal enrollment from the perspective of a woman who is part of the Lumbee tribe in North Carolina. Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz has other heritages, but she focused on claiming the Native American aspect of her ancestry. Her mother had enrolled her when she was six. She was not raised to feel a part of that tribe, living over a thousand miles from where the Lumbee tribe is headquartered, but the card would be back in her hands years later after testing and reenrollment. In this book, she wrote about her personal experience as well as the frustrations of the attempt to collect information that might be valuable to anyone who wishes to do the same. 

In this book author Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz brings up the different ways that Tribes consider people for membership, the questions asked by the United States Census, the Dawes Rolls, and much more. 

You will find the following tribes mentioned - some detailed information, some just a note.

The Lumbee, Cherokee,  Navaho, Meskwaki, Oneida, Apache, Blackfeet, Checotah, United Keetoowah-Cherokee, Chickasaw, Chippewa, Choctaw, Creek, Dakota, Seminole, Hopi, Iroquois, Kalona, Lakota, Lenape, Mohawks, Muscogee (Creek),Naticoke, Nooksack, Ojibwe, Quechan, Seneca, Seminole, Shawnee, Sioux, Tohono O'odham, Tulalip, Tuscarora, Wyandot, Wyandotte....

I highly recommend this book, which was so well written and thought out - so informative. For the purposes of Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot, I will excerpt information that will be especially interesting to my readers in the next few posts.


THE GROWING NUMBER OF AMERICANS WHO REPORT BEING NATIVE AMERICAN ON UNITED STATES CENSUS

Excerpt  Introduction : If you, like me, track the results of the U.S. Census because nothing in this cold world makes sense except the hard facts of multivariate data analysis, you've seen it, too: the population of people in this country who self--identify as Native has exploded.

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, about 4.1 million people checked the Indian box, a term I use to describe the carousel of options that have appeared for Native Americans and Alaska Natives. By 2010, that number had increased to 5.2 million.  And in 2020. 9.7 million people - more than twice the 2000 county - self-identified as Native.

Certainly, there have been a few changes to the way we count. In 2000, for example, for the first time in census history, people could check more than one box for race. So, if we assume that people were previously choosing between their racial identities, the 2000 census presented an interesting change in methodology.  In deed, the number of people who identified as Native in the 1990 census was just under 2 million, less than half the number in 2000. There has also been a significant push to count more of the Native people living on reservations, a population that has a higher census :undercount" of any population in the United States, at 5.6 percent...... Over the last ten years, increased Tribal consultation has taken place, as have efforts to "get out the count" in native communities.

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Book Review and Excerpt selections
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03 May 2025

ABOUT CHILDREN BEING "PARENTIFIED" : THIS WAS HOW LIFE WAS LIVED FOR CENTURIES : OPINION BY ANCESTRY WORSHIP - GENEALOGY

I recently read an article that was clearly influenced by the latest notions about child abuse coming from the psychology profession.  I remembered when I took Psych 101 in college and my professor said that one of the reasons the profession existed, a kind of manifesto, was to make the world a better place. Well, has it?  Sometimes I think this profession is responsible for making just about everyone diagnose-able in some way and looking for more patients. I'm all for children being wanted and loved, and parents taking responsibility for raising them  But the article railed against the latest notion of child abuse and that is "parentifiying" a child.

What this was explained to be, by this article, was children having to raise their siblings. Well, that is exactly how it worked in the past, when entire families had to work together also in the fields and many families had numerous children who had to help out in the house and yard and care for their siblings.  We called them "farm families" but it was not just agricultural life that required big families. Many immigrant families, and families in which both parents needed to work, relied on family members to also work, especially in maintaining the household and the younger siblings. Ten children - sometimes more - were not unusual.  Many of you are descended from families in which a mother had a child every couple years, had them in her own bed with a midwife, breast fed the babies, and the older children helped out as she went back to work cooking, cleaning, and doing the laundry.

It may be rare, but I've met people in their teens and early twenties who took responsibility for younger siblings when parents died.  I've meet the teens who, being raised by single mothers, were the ones who were also caring for their parent who was terminally ill, while also going to high school. Someone had to step up to the plate, these people did, and I admired them for the courage and fortitude. (They're the kind of people worth hiring in the workplace too when their in home caregiving is done.)

In particular, back in the day, older sisters were helping bath, diaper, and feed babies, playing with them, and having their younger siblings tag along, watched out for them on the school yard, and in the process not only bonded with their siblings but learned the skills needed to be a mother themselves. 

This was how "baby-sitting" otherwise known as child care was perceived, which is why as a teenager I and so many others were paid, but barely, so that a neighbor could go out for the evening or take care of business elsewhere.

I realize that child labor is usually defined as labor in which a child earned money - outside the home - and did not go to school. However, children, especially sons, often worked with their fathers and other members of their family in the trades, learning skills such as weaving, tailoring, and cobbling, and were only considered qualified to marry if they could, through apprenticeship and moving into the family business or a trade guild, support a family.

I've been doing the genealogy for a family that landed in the United States as German immigrants to Pennsylvania after the American Revolution and it is clear on the census that the children were all working by the time they were teens. They may have gone to the first three grades, maybe eight, and then it was time to work at a bakery or as a seamstress.

Children were considered to be adults earlier back in the day, or, as a friend called them "small adults."  While I think teens today feel pressure to grow into adulthood too soon, I also see that parental expectations of their children is that they will not truly be released into adulthood until they are educated and have established careers.  All of this would be considered the indulgence of the rich a hundred or more years ago.

Do you have an opinion?

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01 May 2025

ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY BLOGSPOT


Our genetic and spiritual ancestors help us with our research quests 
and, while we follow a linear research path, 
amazing dreams and synchronicity abound. 

We explore multicultural ancestry worship 
and the use of genealogy for past-life verification, 
as well as practical ways and means to achieve your research goals.

30 April 2025

THE BRYAN KOHBERGER TRIAL NEARS and I'M JUST AS INTERESTED IN THE INVESTIGATIVE GENETIC GENEALOGY DNA EVIDENCE ASPECT OF THE CASE

It's been a while since I posted about my interest in the "Idaho Four" Murder case.  Although I'm not a follower of True Crime podcasts in general, I have spent many hours listening to various podcasts about this one. Some of the podcasters and the people they interview make me crazy because, overall, the man has been convicted and is assume to be guilty even when they make a mention of that fact that in the United States we presume innocence, while going on to talk about him specifically as the murderer. Listening to a variety of opinions is good because it certainly opens one's mind to possibility. For instance, I do think there is reason to consider that there was more than one murderer involved in the killing of the four students, two weapons, two styles of stabbing or gouging, and a timeline that would mean to me that a person would probably have to be a killing professional to kill four persons so quickly.  Day by day, as more information that was kept away from the citizen and the media, is released, some notions are challenged, while others make more sense.

It's been a couple years now since Koberger, once a PhD. candidate student studying criminology, was arrested.  His lawyers are thorough and a third has recently been put on a case in which many thousands of documents must be looked over by attentive staff. This case includes much that is modern such as videos, door bell cameras, cell phone pings, and the DNA  which is "Touch DNA." Using Genealogy database as well as going through his family's garbage cans, the FBI matched his father with "Touch DNA" on the metal button of a leather knife protector left at the scene.  The knife itself has not been found. The database and the relative did not give permission. But what's in place to stop law enforcement?

As a genealogist, the use of Genealogy databases and DNA testing service databases is of the most interest to me. It's clear that everywhere we go and everything we do, we are leaving trace evidence of our existence. I was thinking about this the other day because I'm the only person on earth besides her owner, a friend of mine, who can hold a small Jack Russel terrier named Princess. Princess is extremely protective of my friend and/or is terrified of just about every other human or dog that lives. Princess has been shedding all over me, all over.  I see that and I think about shedding a few skin cells wherever I go.

I think we are all challenged with a conflict here of wanting a murderer caught but also wanting our personal privacy. In a recent court pretrial ruling it was determined that this DNA evidence would not be used...

KREM : KOHBERGER PRETRIAL DETERMINATION DNA

Excerpt: Both sides agreed not to introduce evidence obtained through Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG). Instead, the state will rely on a "tip" that led to Khoberger. The court also reserved ruling on a motion involving evidence of alternative perpetrators, requiring the defense to submit offers of proof by a set deadline.

On the topic of DNA evidence, the court granted a motion to exclude misleading population comparisons related to likelihood ratios presented to the grand jury. However, it would not restrict similar questioning during the trial. A defense motion to exclude testimony about an "inconclusive" DNA likelihood ratio was denied as moot, as the state said it would not use it as inculpatory evidence.

Here is an explanation of TOUCH DNA https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-46051-9

Touch DNA: impact of handling time on touch deposit and evaluation of different recovery techniques: An experimental study
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26 April 2025

CAROL BOWMAN ON CHOOSING ONE'S PARENTS IN THE PRE-EARTHLY EXISTANCE

The options are plentiful but not unlimited. 

Frankly, I myself have wondered how or why anyone would choose a parent or partner who is abusive to them as the soul plans the next incarnation. So though I'm partial to the idea that we do have many life experiences so that we can learn and improve ourselves, I feel that there is a risk in experiencing a life that makes us a worse person. I feel careful about having a "tit for tat" notion about spiritual experiences and using reincarnation theories as an excuse for bad behavior.

But let's see what Carol Bowman had to say in her book, which I highly recommend.

Page 144 : Not all souls participate equally in the planning process. Some are actively involved and choose carefully; others are passive, drifting into their next lives without much preparation.  Some apparently never leave the earth vibration and wander aimlessly until they fall into a convenient womb.  It's not a tidy process, not uniform or predictable, follows no formulas, and is definitely not the same for every soul.

Page 145 : It seems that in choosing a life the difference in the degree of planning is dependent on the soul's maturity and awareness. Studies agree that advanced souls spend more time in the afterlife learning and weighing plans for their next incarnation than less mature souls do. Since the advanced souls have mastered a higher level of lessons and skills on Earth, they have the understanding to create more ambitious and finely tuned plans.  On the other hand, less advanced "beginner" souls rush through the afterlife without giving much thought to what they are doing and jump back into the first body that seems good enough. These lives have a smaller chance of being productive compared with those that are carefully planned. The unplanned lives are more likely to end up being drab and meaningless or chaotic, or the individual may be overwhelmed by challenges it is not equipped to handle.


Carol Bowman's book was published in 2001 and so about twenty-five years ago.  I'm sure much more has been learned about reincarnation in the Western, Christian world, since then.  I'm aware that some Christian's believe that any belief in reincarnation is wrong, even demonic. I personally do not agree this is so. 

As a genealogist I encounter many family stories, many family secrets, many family scandals, and vow to show respect for those I work with and for by not revealing these to others. There is a lot of pain and shame in some cases. I realize that genealogy is most often promoted as a way to reunite a family, but sometimes the notion of "family" is one that needs to be redefined.

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