DANIEL MENDELSOHN : BOOK EXCERPT : THE LOST (A SEARCH FOR SIX OF SIX MILLION) on JEWISH NAMING PATTERNS

page 151

"I know that Ruchele had to have been born after September 3, 1923... I know this because Eastern European Jews only name their children after their dead... I and my four siblings are named after dead relatives, just as my grandfather and his six siblings were, and because of this practice people who are interested in Jewish genealogy have a remarkably reliable method of determining certain dates if the information is otherwise lacking... '

"I know for a fact that Shmiel's daughter Ruchele Jager had to have been born after the death of her father's and my grandfather's sister; The first Rachel Jager born in 1896, the doomed bride whose tragic and unexpected death, also horribly premature, would later become, over the course of many years, my families' greatest story, a mythic narrative at whose heart, or so I believe, stands an even older legend about closeness and distance, intimacy and violence, love and death, that first of all legends, first of all myths, about how easily we come to kill those to whom we are closest. '

(Daniel Mendelshohn is referring to CAIN and ABEL here, from the Old Testament/Torah. His book is masterful and, if he does nothing else in his life, this is an accomplishment of a lifetime.)

THE LOST
A search for six of six million
C 2006
Daniel Mendelsohn HarperCollins Publishers

HOW THEY CROAKED - THE AWEFUL ENDS OF THE AWFULLY FAMOUS by GEORGIA BRAGG is GROSS! (BUT INTERESTING)

How They Croaked The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous By Georgia Bragg and Illustrated by Kevin O' Malley C 2011 Walker and Company - New York Reading about George Washington (his bad teeth finally killed him) or Marie Antoinette (she apologized for accidentally stepping on the foot of her executioner before he beheaded her), was odd fun, though mostly I thought this book was gross. But I have to share with you a list on page 73 that made me realize how TRULY IMPORTANT IT IS TO NOT THROW THINGS YOU MAY NEED SOMEDAY OUT!

"OUT WITH THE GARBAGE"

* Mozart's widow, Constanze, threw away many of Mozart's unfinished musical compositions.

* Beethoven's secretary threw out 260 of the 400 conversation books Beethoven wrote in to communicate with people.

* George and Martha Washington threw away all their love letters to each other.

* Christopher Columbus's family sold off all his maps and charts.

CHABAD.org explains about YIZKOR PRAYER and GIVING

"In addition to reciting Yizkor for one's parents, one may recite Yizkor for any Jew who has passed on, including relatives and friends. When reciting Yizkor for more than one person, repeat the Yizkor paragraph each time, and substitute the words "Aböh Mori" (my father), or " Imi Morösi" (my mother), with the appropriate title, as follows: For a Husband: "Ba-ali." Son: "B'ni." Brother: "Öchi ." Uncle: "Dodi." Grandfather: "Z'kainy" . Wife: " Ishti." Daughter: "Biti." Sister: "Achosi." Aunt: "Dodosi." Grandmother: "Z'ken-ti."

Read more by linking the site above!

LOCATING A BIRTH PARENT ? OHIO ADOPTION REGISTRY IS JUST ONE OF MANY

There are a number of adoption or reunion sites on the Internet. 

Reuniting a birth parent and child is often a sensitive issue. 

I'm not going to pick a favorite site. I'm going to say that I've used the state of OHIO which seemed very helpful (so I'm linking above) and that I ran into a legal rut in MISSOURI when the adult person's adoptive parents refused to sign papers that would allow their son to see those papers. Every state has its own laws, and we must obey them. 

Here's the thing you should consider: DO YOU WANT INFORMATION FOR EVERYONE WHO LOOKS AT A SITE TO SEE UP ON THE NET OR NOT? 

Personally, I don't think you do want to post or read off the wide-open net. I think you want to have to register and sign in each time you look in a "members-only" site with restricted access.

What if you don't have the money for a Private Investigator or you are sensitive about invasions of privacy or don't have someone's Social Security Number (let's face it, the SS number IS a national ID) or there has been great bitterness? Can you emotionally handle researching this yourself? Genealogy research is sometimes a way around hiring a PI. Like so many other professional assignments, much depends on how much accurate information a person can give me from the start, and often adoption is surrounded by secrecy if not outright lies told to children. It also depends on where the adoption took place and the laws of that country, state, and county and the contract of adoption. 

Recently. I helped a woman who was over 70 find out the truth about her birth mother. She said she was ready. She was adopted at the age of 5 and was told by blood relatives, whom she located herself as a young adult, that her mother was a skid row bum. I found evidence of a divorce and early death, but skid row? That may have been a way that her adoptive parents and family prevented her from looking for her birth mother. Maybe the mother had a drinking problem, maybe not. I suspect this mother was probably mentally ill and not understood as such in those times. THE DEATH RECORD we sent for will tell this 70 year old woman more and allow her to visit a grave site for the first time. Sadly, it turned out this woman was actually surrounded by relatives including grandparents much of her young life, and they knew where she was, but everyone stayed away. They wanted no contact with her as an adult either. She lived her life feeling as if she was contaminated by her mother's reputation. 

So, if you have the guts and are ready yourself, try a registry or two or three. Believe it or not, I know of a reunion that occurred no more than two weeks after registration! That was in the state of California, and it was handled by phone calls from the registry and an intermediary.

C 2011  Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot

RED CROSS MISSING PERSONS

THE RED CROSS: Did you know that you can STILL use their MISSING PERSON'S SERVICE to locate Holocaust and others from the World War II era?

There are now other MISSING PERSON LOCATORS available now for more recent natural disasters such as Haiti.

STATUE OF LIBERTY

Many of our ancestors came through ELLIS ISLAND or the Port of New York, though there were several other important seaports that immigrants sailed into. Today on the anniversary of the 9/11 Terrorist Attack, I think of this great symbol of the United States of America, a statue made in France and gifted to us by the French.

BOOK REVIEW of NANCY GOLDSTONE'S THE FOUR QUEENS

Browsing through the Getty Museum's Book Store, I spotted a book of interest to those of you who like the Medieval period of Europe when the Knights and Fair Damsels were - well - ruling countries.

Most of us can't trace our family history past the 1600's unless there is some provable documents of royal background, for genealogy was probably then more of an obsession of the rich. Knowing who was who was important too when you were arranging marriages.

NANCY GOLDSTONE'S THE FOUR QUEENS "The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe" is about the four daughters of the count of Provence, who made brilliant (arranged) marriages that made them the Queens of France, England, Germany, and Sisicly. Married young - and we mean consummated sex here - twelve and thirteen - these women were history making in their influence in a male dominated and battle dominated world of the 1200's in Europe, well before Countries as we know them were formed.
"Marguerite, Eleanor, Sanchia, and Beatrice...were as educated and world wise as young women could be ... They were married because their fathers (and mothers) saw material advantage and power as an exchange for uniting families... Death claims children and husbands... And so does God, Crusades, and Batttles."

Of great interest in this book is the story of the first coinage of England and how persons using it snipped bits of metal, hoping to slowly collect a fortune...
LINKING HERE TO A French Royal site that shows some of the key players in this work of history, which will also get you THE ANCESTRY OF GEORGE WASHINGTON

WEST VIRGINIA OFFERS SOME SEARCHABLE BIRTH, MARRIAGE, and DEATH INDEXES

"The West Virginia Vital Research Records Project
is a collaborative venture between the West
Virginia State Archives and the Genealogical
Society of Utah (GSU) to place online via the
West Virginia Archives and History Web site
selected West Virginia county birth, death
and marriage records, and selected statewide
death records in a viewable, downloadable and
searchable format accessible"

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