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 Funeral home sign-in books can aid a family history story. 

 Prayer cards are often interesting too. I know someone who collects the prayer cards - 

She says the prayers on them on the anniversaries of a deceased person's death.

Ancestry Worship - Genealogy

DNA : A GUIDE FOR FAMILY HISTORIANS and A GENEALOGY REQUEST FROM A PERSON WHO BELIEVES THEMSELVES TO BE A CHILD BEGOT IN INCEST

This book is very interesting indeed!  But ah, I have to admit that I found it a difficult read. I had it for weeks before I was overcome with the feeling that, while it was written for the family historian / genealogist, I would have to give it a second go some other time.

While I was reading it, I got a genealogy research request from a person who told me that she thought she might be a child begot in incest.

Science is gaining on understanding the transfer of DNA - which is still a mystery. Now even the DNA of an ancient bogman can be interpreted; we can know he had blue eyes and what color hair, as well as where he was likely born via his diet. But our most obvious traits - what we look like - can vary from what our parents look like.

This book does go into scientific detail explaining how our DNA is conveyed through the generations. But what the woman who thinks her brother may have been her father, and that she was raised by various relatives until she was adopted, would need is LIVING and WILLING relatives whose tests could be compared to hers and it would probably take an expert to read any test results and interpret them for her. It's not presently possible to do that, requiring an adoption search.

What we have right now are PERCENTAGES.

YES, IF YOU HAVE LIVING AND WILLING RELATIVES, you may be able to learn who your biological parents were.  A brother as a father? Possibly.  According to one testing company if your father was your full brother, you may share more like 75% DNA rather than the 50% you share from that sibling. This book does have some helpful charts about percentages of relatedness.

BUT SHE DOES NOT.  She tells me that the man she thought of as her grandfather, the man she thought of as her brother, and her actual brother have all passed away. So are the relatives who she called mom and dad. So there isn't anyone that close to be tested. Well, maybe if there is something they left behind - a locket of hair? - there might be something to test. 

So, let me say this - because it does come up from time to time. When I say I'm a genealogist many people start talking about genetics.

Genealogy is research in which we rely on documents we call "the paper trail." DNA science can sometimes be used to find relatives and therefore ancestors you didn't know about if you get a "match" who is also interested in comparing the paper trail research and/or may know some people or information you do not.

All people involved must have taken DNA tests with the same company. (The book does mention the offerings of various companies and some pluses and minuses.) Some people test and upload results for sharing but some do not. I personally have to honor that, especially because we live in a time in which our privacy is being invaded.

The test results, when it comes to race and ethnicity, are STATISTICAL ANALYSIS. Which is why some people get updates and surprises such as a change in the reading of their ethnicity  from a company or variant results after testing with more than one. As more people add their information to a particular database, science gets better at this prediction. 

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CHANGING LEAVES

 

WHAT IS THE LONGEST RUNNING PUBLISHED PERIODICAL IN THE UNITED STATES?

It's the OLD FARMER'S ALMANAC which many farmers relied upon when it came to weather predictions and planting times. And it was first published in 1793 when George Washington was the First President of the United States.

ALMANAC HISTORY

Excerpt: By definition, an almanac records and predicts astronomical events (the rising and setting of the Sun, for instance), tides, weather, and other phenomena with respect to time. The best known of all of almanacs ever produced is The Old Farmer’s Almanac, North America’s oldest, continuously published periodical.

Excerpt: Today, The Old Farmer’s Almanac is the oldest continuously published periodical in North America, with a circulation of over 2.5 million copies throughout the United States and Canada. People still flock to the Almanac for its 80 percent accurate weather forecasts, which have evolved to incorporate state-of-the-art technology and modern scientific principles, in addition to Thomas’s original formulation.

***

You may enrich your family history writing by looking at old Almanacs...

Some links : CLIMATE NCSU (How the Almanac Predicted Weather)

ONLINE BOOKS AT U OF PENN : Editions of the Old Farmers Almanac

DNA OF ELIZABTH I "THE VIRGIN QUEEN" : NO SHE WAS NOT MALE and YES SHE BECAME VERY ILL

There are a few things I need to remind my readers of when it comes to DNA tests and evidence. DNA has progressed over the years and though these videos seem to be quite intelligently made, there may be other opinions or revisions available.

Elizabeth I was born 7 September 1533 and passed on 24 March 1603. She was the Queen of England and Ireland from 1558 until her death. She never married or had children and is known for using white lead cosmetic to smooth her skin, which had been pitted from having smallpox and might have poisoned her and her red hair. In this video it is suggested she took great care of her appearance and sought to seem ageless in order to appear powerful to her country's enemies.

A DNA Reconstruction Of Queen Elizabeth I Revealed : THE BLACK RECORD YOUTUBE STATION

Posts like this one can be found by clicking on the label YouTube Station Recommend

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THE DNA OF RICHARD III SUGGESTS HIS MOTHER TOLD A LIE ... THE KING KNOWN FOR SCOLIOSIS

... and challenges who should have inherited the throne.  We don't know what his mother experienced or knew or if her husband knew that Richard III was not his biological son. The skeleton was found under a parking lot ... His spinal deformation and his rich seafood diet helped convince the scientists this skeleton belonged to Richard III... So they decided to find useable DNA from bones over 500 years old... The genealogist sought a living descendant or his sister Anne of York and traced her female lineage - seventeen generations. On the paternal side though, living relatives were found and it was a mismatch! But it could have been that Richard III himself was not where the DNA lineage break occurred but went back a generation or so.

Excerpt from the station : a discovery that suggests a massive deception at the heart of the English monarchy.

DNA From King Richard III’s Bones Just Revealed a Secret : THE BLACK RECORD YOUTUBE STATION

Posts like this one can be found by clicking on the label YouTube Station Recommend

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COMING UP : MORE YOUTUBE VIDEO STATIONS WORTH WATCHING ABOUT DNA MYSTERIES AND CONTROVERSIES

I recently found some YouTube stations about the use of DNA to solve the mysteries of some English historical characters that 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! 

Posts like this one can be found by clicking on the label YouTube Station Recommend

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WHAT'S NEW WITH THE "ELLIS ISLAND NEW YORK - STATUE OF LIBERTY ORG - DATABASE SITE ? IT'S NO LONGER JUST ABOUT ELLIS ISLAND! MORE U.S. PORT SHIP MANIFESTS TO BE INCLUDED!

In 2025 the old "Ellis Island" database site (which I stayed up in the middle of the night to access when it first was launched on the Internet - contributing to the site crashing!) underwent some wonderful improvements thanks to major financial input: one hundred million dollar renovation to turn the museum into a state of the art experience which doubled the size of the museum. 

Very basically, it's no longer just an Ellis Island site!  Records from other ports of entry into the United States are going to be added to that database, an ongoing project:  The plans are to include these ports.  Check on progress of the project...

Boston, Massachusetts

Baltimore, Maryland

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

New Orleans, Louisiana

San Francisco, California

San Diego, California

Los Angeles (San Pedro), California

Charleston, South Carolina

Galveston, Texas 

Ports in Florida

 
Hawaii,

 
Alaska, 

Puerto Rico

Maybe more!
 

If you make it to New York City, you can go there with what you may know about your ancestor and a live person can help you use the database. "The Family History Center is located on the first floor of the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration."

STATUE OF LIBERTY ORG - THE "ELLIS ISLAND" SITE

HERITAGE STATUE OF LIBERTY - PASSENGER SEARCH  (Click here to go directly to the passenger search database)

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Ancestry Worship - Genealogy

PLANETARY PHOTO FAMILY TREE

LOVE THIS CONCEPT!

This image is from THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Title : Planetary photographic family record / designed and executed by J.W. Zook, Oak Grove, Ills. ; Lith. of Kellogg & Bulkeley, Hartford, Conn.

Genre : Family trees--1860-1870 Lithographs--1860-1870
Call Number/Physical Location :PGA - Kellogg & Bulkeley--Planetary photographic (D size) [P&P]

100 AMAZING FACTS ABOUT THE NEGRO by LOUIS HENRY GATES JR. : MORE EXCERPTS! LET'S KEEP LEARNING!

More Excerpts! :

Chapter 22 : Did black people own slaves? If so, why?

Excerpt page 60 : One of the most vexing paradoxes in African-American history Is that free black people in the county bought and sold other black people starting at least in 1654 and continued to do so through the Civil War ..... Historians have been arguing for some time over whether free blacks purchased family members as slaves in order to protect them - motivated by benevolence and philanthropy.... or whether they purchased other black people primarily to exploit their free labor for profit, just as white slave owners did. ....

In 1830 about 13% (319,599) of the black population was free. Of these free Negroes, 3,776 owned 12,907 slaves, out of a total of 2,009,043 slaves owned in the United States...

(Citing Historian Thomas J. Pressly....) About 1 percent of these black slave owners in 1830 owned between 20 and 84 slaves; 172 (about 4 percent) owned between 10 and 19 slaves; and 3, 550 (about 94 percent) each owned between 1 an 9 slaves. Crucially 42 percent owned just 1 slave.

Chapter 40 "Before Emancipation, didn't most free blacks live in the northern half of America?

Excerpt page 140: (Referencing a book published in 1974 called "Slaves without Masters: The Free Negro in the Antebellum South: by Ira Berlin)

In 1860, that raging year of Lincoln's reelection and southern secession, a total of 488,070 free blacks lived in the United States, about 10 percent of the Black population  Of those 226, 152 lived in the North and 2651,918 in the South.  (But Delaware and Maryland are considered the south)

A few months before the Confederacy was born, there were 35,766 more free black people living in the slave-owning South than the North. And they stayed there during the Civil War.

***

NOTE : Manumissions are formal acts of emancipation by slave owners.

I'm always interested in learning more niche-specific history and these stats certainly challenged my understanding that far fewer blacks had the status of freemen so early.

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