VISIT SKIRBALL "CREATING THE UNITED STATES" EXHIBIT Through February 17, 2013

SKIRBALL HOME PAGE LINK   Creating the United States Exhibit amazing!  Expect low light and take some time. You'll be reading handwritten documents straight out of the history of the United States of America.  Can anyone help but compare their own handwriting to that of our Founding Fathers?  Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln.  (Also ask to see the small exhibit of Abraham Lincoln's artifacts in another gallery!)

excerpt:

"Adapted from an exhibition organized by the Library of Congress, where it was seen by some two million visitors in the library's historic setting, Creating the United States illuminates how the founding documents—the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights—were forged out of imagination and vision, as well as collaboration and compromise. While fulfilling the principles laid down by the founders has been a struggle throughout the centuries, the documents they painstakingly wrote are living instruments, essential to the evolution of America and its future.

"It is a very rare opportunity to see these humble, handwritten pages up close," wrote Robert Kirschner, Skirball Museum Director, in a recent SkirBlog post. "They are surprisingly small. The ink is faded. The penmanship itself is an artifact. Yet these documents are as eloquent and powerful as any ever written. When their faded ink was fresh, the world was ruled by kings..."

On view are original documents and autograph letters by George Washington, John Adams, John Hancock, and Thomas Jefferson; a first edition of Common Sense by Thomas Paine (1776); engravings by Paul Revere; a William J. Stone copy of the Declaration of Independence (1847); a Members Edition of the United States Constitution (1787); a facsimile of Jefferson's desk on which he drafted the Declaration of Independence; and an original copy of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation (1863). Rarely has the history of American democracy been so vividly assembled for public exhibition in Southern California."

DNA OF CHRISTMAS TREE TO BE REVEALED!

DNA OF CHRISTMAS TREE TO BE REVEALED : ASSOCIATED PRESS full article link here!

..."We're talking about the conifer, the umbrella term for cone-bearing trees like the spruce, fir, pine, cypress and cedar. Apart from their Yuletide popularity, they play big roles in the lumber industry and in healthy forest ecosystems... How big is a conifer genome? Consider the 80-foot Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center in New York. It's a Norway spruce, so its genome is six times bigger than that of anybody skating below it. Other conifer genomes are even larger..."

WAS ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S FATHER A SPRINGSTEIN?

I'm hoping to get this book called Pandora's Box and read it, but until then here is a part of a controversial web site concerning the Paternity of Abraham Lincoln.

"Little has been published about the early life of Abraham Lincoln. However, during a search of some old property records and will in a small courthouse in central North Carolina, Alex Christopher the author of "Pandora's Box", found the will of one A.A. Springsin an old will book dated around 1840. Upon reading the will he was shocked and amazed at the secret it disclosed. But the fact is that wills, even though classified as public records the same as property and corporation records, are rarely combed through as he was doing. These documents can hold dark secrets hidden from public view and never uncovered because few research these old records.


Thus secrets are hidden in public view so that when accused of concealing the records, bureaucracy can reply "It was on public record in plan view for any and all to find."

The will of the late A.A. Springs lists his property and to whom the beneficiaries who included his children. Mr. Christopher and others were looking to find what railroads and banks this man might have owned and left to his son Leroy Springs. He didn't find anything like that, but he did find the prize of the century. On the bottom of page three of four pages was a paragraph where the father, A.A. Springs, left to his son an enormous amount of land in the state of Alabama which is now known as Huntsville, Alabama. At first Mr. Christopher and his colleagues could not believe what their eyes, because the name of his son was "ABRAHAM LINCOLN"!

This new information added to what they had already learned about the Springs, whose real name was Springstein, was one more twist to this already enigmatic family. This unexpected knowledge about Lincoln set their hearts on fire to see what further secrets this new lead might disclose. Because everything they had so far found in the railroad and banking saga had been really mind-opening, they figured this one would be the same. So they investigated the local archives and historical records on families and found a reference to one Abraham Lincoln in a published genealogy of a Carolina family by the name of McAdden. This genealogy was a limited edition of the type once found in the public libraries. The section on Lincoln resembled the following form of words."

LINK TO FULL ARTICLE BY ALEX CHRISTOPHER here

One of my questions is "how do you know there is only one Abraham Lincoln?"  I researched one town in Hungary where there were only four or five surnames for the entire population of the town, dozens of Maria Sabos...

I'm also hoping to check into the latest information on MELUNGEONS by  one of the authors and researchers relying on DNA to discover the origins of the Melungeons of Appalacia.

THE HUNT FOR JOHN WILKES BOOTH : HISTORY CHANNEL : DVD REVIEW by ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY

Travel the escape route of President Abraham Lincoln's assasin John Wilkes Booth, as he eludes the biggest man hunt in American History to that point - April of 1865.

What I learned :

Booth may have been the shooter but he was part of a conspiracy that included several - some say many - others.

Booth heard so much anti- Lincoln talk among his confederate fellows prior to the end of the Civil War that he though he's be a hero and easily have a place to hide... So he and his conspirators thought that if they got into the South they would be safe.

David Herold was the co-conspirator who ran with Booth.

Several people - including a woman - were hung for their crime. A doctor who set Booth's broken leg was in prison for years before being granted a Presidential pardon years later.

THE WHITE HOUSE PRESIDENTIAL BIOGRAPHY OF PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN

THE WHITE HOUSE PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA SITE on PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN

You can read the entire article by clicking on that link above, but here is the part that is important to genealogists...

..."The son of a Kentucky frontiersman, Lincoln had to struggle for a living and for learning. Five months before receiving his party's nomination for President, he sketched his life:


"I was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families--second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks.... My father ... removed from Kentucky to ... Indiana, in my eighth year.... It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up.... Of course when I came of age I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher ... but that was all." ...

This article tells you the county and state Lincoln was born in and where his parents would also be found.  (By the way, I've heard that the actor Tom Hanks is related to the Nancy Hanks family.)

LOOKING FOR LINCOLN : HENRY LOUIS GATES JR. DVD DOCUMENTARY

LOOKING FOR LINCOLN isa film about trying to find out who Abraham Lincoln really was, who he was as a man, a person, rather than as we have been told he was, rather than as he was marketed.  It is a question of re envisioning history, a difficult task.

Interestingly, Abraham, who is said to have walked rigidly and stood six foot 4 inches tall, and was considered odd looking, was quite interested in having himself photographed, aware that he needed a photo to market himself as a Presidential Candidate and President, that spoke for him.  The image he finally chose was the image that was reproduced or redrawn or painted many times.

This video questions if it was ever Lincoln's Big Idea to Free the Slaves.  At the time some of those who wanted to abolish slavery also thought about sending Free people of Color to Africa, to establish themselves there.

I believe this is because the line between slavery and indentured servitude was sometimes very thin.  Someone who served their servitude and someone who was freed or bought others out of slavery.

Doris Kearns Goodwin and Tony Kushner, Pulitzer prize winning authors who've written about Lincoln and other scholars including genealogist and historical professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. speak in this film.

Film came out in 2009 producted byby WNET ORG.

COMING UP - ABRAHAM LINCOLN!

Living in Southern California where a large part of the economy is based in movie making, I've been seeing advertisements on bus stops and all around for the movie that's just coming out in which the actor Daniel Day Lewis acts as Abraham Lincoln and Sally Fields acts as Mary Todd Lincoln.  In this company town there is Oscar Buzz about the film.  The screenplay by Tony Kushner is said to be excellent and well, this may be one of those rare films that has earned its right to call itself an "event."

LINCOLN the movie official site link

We Americans seem to have an ongoing fascination for Abraham Lincoln as a character and as someone who had an impactful role in History, and like the story about the sinking of the Titanic, there have been a number of films over the years in which various actors, directors, and screen writers have had their chance to put forth their Point of View.

You may also consider President Lincoln to be a fascinating GENEALOGY CASE STUDY!

I'll be posting on Lincoln, American History and Genealogy, and Slavery from now through February, which is African American Month, along with my holiday posts!  I know that many of you genealogy researchers find the months of November and December to be down time when it comes to research but what's great abouty using Blogger is that the posts remain to be found at any time in the future as well.

THANKS GIVING : WHAT I'M THANKFUL FOR

What am I thankful for? 

I want to thank my readers for reading ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY because I always imagine someone is reading when I write, but it's very good to know that's actually true!

I want to thank those of you who have posed some QUESTIONS about genealogy research, as in answering I find myself learning more too!

I want to thank Google for the no cost blogging platform and tools that make this blog happen without my having to come up with money.

I want to thank Dover Publishing, which provides no cost artistic images for non-profit web sites and other uses. I never worry that I'm violating someone else's Rights to an image when I use Dover images.

I want to thank Yahoo for notifying me and helping me when my e-mail account was hacked into and my address book was used for spamming. It was disheartening and I still feel concern that my new genealogy friends might have been conned. 

I am also thankful that I have intelligence and the willingness to seek out information and that there have been times during my years as a genealogy researcher when I suspected I had divine help.

That's a lot to be thankful for!

I FOUND FAMILY ON THE INTERNET BUT THEY DON'T SEEM TO WANT CONTACT WITH ME! (QUESTION FROM READER!)

Question for: ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY 

After years of research, I found some information on a lost relative (someone I never met but who my mother wanted contact with) on the Internet.  The person had married and was celebrating a special occasion and there was a brief biography on the net that mentioned her maiden name.  It was the right state but not the right city, as much as I knew, but I decided since there was an e-mail address to contact her.

I did so honestly.  I told her who I was and how we were related, and I gave enough information to back up my claim and flat out asked her if she was the person in question.  I told her I was the family genealogist and that there were some mysteries I hadn't been able to solve.

A couple weeks later I got an e-mail back from her.  She didn't say I was right or not.  She mentioned talking to her husband about it and also said that over the summer they would go through some old pictures and documents.  It was almost a yes.  I responded right away telling her I was looking forward to it.  Then a couple months passed and I e-mailed again, just a hello how are you kind of message.  This time there was no response.  Now it's almost winter and there has been no more contact.  I have only her e-mail address or I would send a Christmas card. Should I just leave this alone?

Megan

Answer:

Megan,

I think you should leave it alone even though the holidays are near and it would be nice to send a card by the United States post office (I don't do e-mail cards).  Maybe this person is just so busy that she hasn't gotten around to the old pictures and documents or going through all the memorabilia brought up bad feelings, maybe she has lived her life without contact with your mother and doesn't want it, maybe her husband doesn't think it's a good idea...  One thing for sure is you've done your part and so it's now up to her. 

I know this is difficult to accept after so many years of earnest research and good heartedness, but there are many people who just are not at all into genealogy.  There are also people using genealogy databases and other public information wrongfully and good reason for people to be concerned for their privacy and security.  I know that the information this woman has might prove to be valuable and it's really tempting to try, try again, but when I find myself hitting a brick wall like this, I use my time to work on some other line of family.  In other words, maybe this reunion is not meant to be, not now, not in the near future.

ANCESTRY PAID DATABASES RELEASES BURIAL RECORDS FOR MILITARY BURIALS IN TIME FOR VETERANS DAY

National Cemeteries Administration released records of thousands of military personnel which through the paid genealogy database Ancestry (not related to this blog) and what's special is that your ancestor's burial record may include interesting notes.  The Rueters news service, which released the story that was picked up in papers around the country : RUETERS STORY : MILITARY BURIAL RECORDS RELEASED THROUGH ANCESTRY

"They were posted on Ancestry.com through a partnership with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the National Archives and Records Administration, said Todd Godfrey, the Utah-based company's senior director for U.S. content."

ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHIN : CAVE OF NATIVE AMERICAN WOMAN WHO LIVED ALONE FOR 18 YEARS ON SAN NICHOLAS ISLAND

LA TIMES - ARTICLE BY STEVE CHAWKINS "CAVE OF POPULAR HEROINE FOUND AT LAST?

"By 1835, the few Nicoleños left were struggling. Whether motivated by compassion or a need to increase the ranks of mission laborers, Franciscan fathers from the mainland sent a ship for them. All but one made the trip to the mainland aboard the Peor es Nada, loosely translated as "Better than nothing."

The holdout came to be known as the Lone Woman. According to legend, she jumped overboard and swam for shore when she frantically realized that her baby had been left behind. Less romanticized theories hold that she told the captain she'd show up with her child but a sudden storm forced him to shove off without her.

What's known is that a solitary woman lived in the sand and fog of San Nicolas for the next 18 years. On the mainland, her legend grew. A time or two, fishermen reported seeing a fleeting figure on the deserted island. In 1850, a padre at the Santa Barbara Mission commissioned a sea captain to find her."

I read the book as an adult and found it to be a fascinating read.  The story of a woman alone for 18 years on an island who was rescued and died 7 weeks later has captured my imagination.

SAROO MUNSHI KHAN BRIERLEY FINDS HIS BIRTH MOTHER USING GOOGLE EARTH : VANITY FAIR ARTICLE LINK HERE

VANITY FAIR : A HOME AT THE END OF GOOGLE EARTH

The power of Google Earth!

Have you tried it?

You put in an address and enter.  You watch the screen as the camera focuses in on the location - often the exact street address - that  you want.  You get to see a picuture of that place as it was, say a few months ago, frozen in time.   This story, featured in November 2012 Vanity Fair magazine is quite wonderful.  A boy was separated from his brother and became an ophan in Calcutta, India.  He was adopted by Americans but years later, using his memory and Google earth, was able to locate his mother and sister!

ANCESTOR PHOTOS : WHY ISN'T ANYONE SMILING?

Why isn't anyone smiling in those old photos?  You know the one's from the 19th century and some from the early 20th century too?  Since when have people tried to appear friendly, like they're having a good time and are happy when they strike a pose?

I thought about this while looking for ancestor photos to use on this blog. 

I think I have some answers for you!

First of all, early photography required that people hold the pose for much longer than we do today when our cameras are capable of freezing the image even as we are moving.  I think having to hold a pose caused a sort of rigidity and formality to the way people held themselves. 

Don't laugh but I have one friend who holds himself this way when he takes pictures today.  He has a whole wall of such ancestor photos and well, maybe it's cultural.  There is NO SAYING CHEESE FOR THIS GUY!  He looks like the FOUNDER OF A DYNASTY and twenty years older than he is, because he just doesn't smile for photos.

The main reason people didn't smile in those early days of photography has to do with - I'm feeling sure of this - because they were ashamed of their teeth!  Dental work wasn't what it is today, and you know dentures weren't what they are today.  No, even George Washington had some choppers carved of wood, some were made of bone, even whale bone.  And he was a very privileged person.

PEOPLE, rich or poor, GENERALLY LOST A LOT OF TEETH.  They pulled teeth that hurt. Every filling you have in your mouth would probably have been a pulled tooth a hundred or more years ago!

The first I see people in photos smiling is around the Gibson Girl era when commercial images of beautiful women used for selling products appeared in newspapers.  The newspaper was affordable for the common, ordinary citizen, and I believe that when models and actresses were shown in the newspaper smiling in ads, society brides followed.  I think women started smiling in photos before men did.  By the 1920's, the Roaring Twenties, there was a change in attitude about what was decent behavior and attitude.  By the Great Depression a great many people were depressed and in photographs it shows.

Long ago I heard that an American traveling to the Society Union as a tourist should never smile on their American passport, because to the Russians a smiling person was suspicious!  Last week I heard that Russia is asking people not to smile in any passport or ID photo for another reason which is because their technology that scans these can not deal with a smile.  Very interesting but is it true?

C  2012 Ancestor Worship Genealogy - All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights

ARTIST PAUL GUAGUIN : PAUL VON WARD : REINCARNATION STORY OF ARTIST PETER TEEKAMP

   This is one of the more fascinating reincarnation stories I've heard about.REINCARNATION EXPERIMENT SITE  link here!

SHINING ARMOR AND NO KNIGHT...

THE PLAGUE : HISTORY CHANNEL DVD : FILM REVEW

ONE THIRD of Europe's population was wiped out when the Plague (otherwise known as the Black Plague) was through killing people off, and the Jews were made scapegoats in some locations.

This DVD by History Channel is excellent. It has a bit of focus on the personal physician of the Pope of those times, a physician who did catch a dose but lived, after refusing to stop doctoring even as so many other doctors ran for their own lives.

Watching it I'm reminded that religious hysteria and scapegoating can go together.

I'm reminded that many of us of European ancestry are descended from those who escaped or survived the Plague, though I don't know if that means we have immunity. (Maybe there will always be a new disease to conquer?)

I'm also reminded of the fear we have in 2012 of biological warfare and the emphasis on end times.

I can say this: I have no fear that the world will end in December of this year. The Mayan calender is round - a wheel - and I believe it's a wheel that can be given another twirl. However, I meet so many people who are invested in End Times and it's always possible that some humans will cause there to be exceptional times out of fervor and expectation. I hope not.  I hope this too shall pass.

I plan to live through the year because with the 1940 census out, even with all the help of databases, it will take a while for me to document hundreds of people I expect to find on it. (As a matter of fact I have to live many more years because I want to be here for the 1950!)

C 2012 Ancestry Worship Genealogy - All Rights including Internet and International Rights Reserved

A SPIRITUAL TIME OF YEAR : NO HALLOWEEN HORROR FOR ME!

Halloween is coming and I will not be participating in the ghoulish aspect of it, the horror, the violence.  I won't be watching fright films meant to keep me awake or contemplate evil or decorate my home with  plastic spiders, rubber ghouls, or foam gravestones cob-webbed with spun foam.  A harvest wreath is more my style.

I'm not sure what the evolution from spiritual time of year, when communication with the dead was thought to be especially good in Pagan traditions, to dream upsetting horror as a celebration was. 

I feel sure that our ancestors who lived an agricultural life were much more acquainted with death and the cycle of life that includes death than we, who buy our meat in supermarkets far from the reality of raising animals and killing them for food, or digging the graves for those who died and burying them on family property.  Recently I was excited to hear about a discovery of a burial not far from where I live of some Colonials, which was under railroad tracks that had been removed.  I wonder where the skeletons were taken!

Checking to see if FIND A GRAVE has added anyone related to me to their database is more my style.

Halloween is coming and I will not be participating in the partying, the outrageous, the costumes and masks. It seems to me there are other, better times for masked balls, for displaying alter egos.  Using an old family recipe for pumpkin pie and having a single goblet of wine with a special dinner is more my style.

Halloween is coming and I will be participating in remembering the dead.  I'll be doing that by working on my personal family history story, by photographing old photos (something I've been meaning to do for such a long long time) so that I can upload them onto a genealogy program I use, and by lighting a candle for those friends who passed in the last year.

C 2012 Ancestry Worship Genealogy  All Rights Reserved Including Internet and International Rights

QUESTION : WHAT CAN I USE TO SUBSTITUTE FOR A BIRTH CERTIFICATE I CAN'T FIND SO I CAN APPLY FOR SOCIAL SECURITY FOR MY GRANDMA?

Question for ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY

Grandma was born in a foreign country and has no birth certificate. She doesn't know where she was born. She came here as a small child and doesn't know for sure if her parent's were naturalized. To be honest, we are not sure how old she really is. She might have been adopted informally - brought over with relatives. She doesn't drive. She doesn't vote. Grandpa had his own business. We don't know if he paid taxes or what. None of this was a problem until, reckoning she's 65, we decided to help her apply for Social Security. How can we document Grandma?

Answer: If Grandpa had his own cash business and never paid into Social Security or didn't pay into the program long enough, Grandma may not be eligible! Have you asked Social Security? Does Grandpa or Grandma have a Social Security number? If so there must be some record of him and her, so my guess is she does not. I would check on grandpa and a legal marriage first.

OK. I would try using church or temple records, some evidence of her having a child who was born and baptized long ago, her wedding record, something like that. Social Security used to accept this kind of evidence that a person was old enough to mother or father, but these days who knows just how old is considered old enough! Pull up census records and anything else you can to BUILD A TIME LINE full of evidence of Grandma's life.

INTERNATIONAL READERSHIP OF ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY

Readers from France, Venezuela, Germany, Columbia, Ecuador, Netherlands, UK, Canada, ...

Welcome to my blog!

Are any of you hoping to locate relatives in the United States?

GOOGLE BLOGGER UPGRADE CHANGES WHERE YOU CLICK TO GET TO A LINK

Until now links were under the title, so you clicked on the title and there you went.  Now links will have their own separate place within the blog post. 

I liked links under the title, but I must admit I often coaxed readers to click there, incase they didn't know. 

Old posts will retain their links on the title. 

It's my hope that everyone will get it!

THE SEVEN DAUGHTERS OF EVE : BRYAN SYKES : EXCERPT

C 2001 Bryan Sykes
Norton Publishers

page 190-191 on Y chromosomes (passed on my males) and prolific males

..."It's true that there have been some particularly prolific males. The world record holder is Moulay Ismail, Emperor of Morocco, who is alleged to have had 700 sons (so presumably as many daughters) by the time he was 49 in 1721. He died in 1727 - so there was another six years to have some more. The most prolific woman comes way behind this. She is Mrs. Feodora Vassilyev, a Russian woman who produced sixty-nine children between 1725 and 1765. They were all multiple births - sixteen pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and four lots of quadruplets - so she was a remarkable woman in that respect as well. The capacity f women to produce large numbers of children is limited by their biology which restricts then to one pregnancy a year at most. Men, on the other hand, are not on a restricted by this timetable and can, in theory, have thousand of children. But the fantasy of enormously prolific males seeding the entire world, thereby reducing the diversity of Y chromosomes by their prodigious feats of polygamy, turned out to be just that. Fantasy. A hard slog in laboratories around the world over the past ten years has found that there are plenty of mutations on the Y chromosome after all..."

ROGER WOOLER PAST LIFE SITE

"Roger Woolger's first book, Other Lives Other Selves, (Doubleday, 1987) is an innovative synthesis of Jungian depth psychology, bodywork, yoga psychology, psychodrama and eastern meditation principles. It has been translated into German, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and French. Widely regarded as the definitive work in the field of regression therapy, this and his later works such as Eternal Return (tape set) and Healing You Past Lives (2004) integrates aspects of Tibetan Buddhism and shamanism. The work has evolved in the last decade into the highly original therapeutic tool which is called Deep Memory Process™. "

GORDON LIGHTFOOT : THE WRECK OF THE EDMUND FITZGERALD

ANSWER TO A QUESTION : HOW CAN I FIND WHAT SHIP MY ANCESTOR WENT DOWN ON?

Q: There's a family story that an ancestor "went down with the ship." No, it's not the Titanic. I checked. It was sometime after 1910 because I found him alive and living in a boarding house full of immigrant day laborers in 1910. I find no evidence of this person in the United States after that though I do find a possible wife coming to the US a few years later so let's say he was possibly alive in 1912. I've checked census, city directories, county birth records to see if he fathered a child in the U.S. I know his name could have been Anglicized but I've tried under variations of the most obvious spellings. What do I do now?

A: There could be a manifest that includes him as a passenger or CREW MEMBER, that is if the book was left at port. Many of the databases that have ship records fail to show the CREW LIST because they are focused on the immigrant. Ellis Island for instance shows steerage passengers, but not the passengers on better tickets. New York ship records should show all passengers but we might have to use a utility to read the manifests from page one all the way through, starting with the Captain, the ship Doctor/Surgeon. (The Ellis Island story is in our minds and we forget there were many other ports operational including in the Great Lakes, Galveston Texas, and Baltimore and Philadelphia.) Even if the manifest went down with the ship too, if you can prove this person was a crew member on a particular ship or for a particular ship line, that will help move your research to a possibility that he was working for that ship line or the ship that went down on another trip.

Besides the United States, check the manifests of ships that crossed the Atlantic leaving from ENGLAND, Liverpool or South Hampton being the most popular ports.

There is also the possibility this person was a MERCHANT MARINE or a sailor for the United States Navy, or the Navy of another country.

I'd like to see more on the net about shipwrecks and passenger lists!

C Ancestry Worship - Genealogy 2012 All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights.

BABY NAMES WILLIAM and ELIZABETH STANDS THE TEST OF TIME

Yahoo news link to this article!

'But one name has resolutely stood the test of time: William. One hundred years later, "William" has fallen only one slot, from No. 2 to No. 3, in the list of popular male names. "James" has also managed to stick around, dropping from No. 3 in 1911 to No. 17 in 2011.

For girls, only "Elizabeth" has stayed on the list, dropping just four spots over the past century, from No. 7 to No. 11."

Looking at the 2011 chart I see that many of the names for girls are not clearly feminine names.

JEWISH HOMEGROWN HISTORY AT THE SKIRBALL CULTURAL CENTER : WHY HOMEMADE MOVIES BECOME A PART OF CULTURAL HISTORY

Back in the spring I attended an exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles called JEWISH HOMEGROWN HISTORY. THe USC Casden Institute for the study of the Jewish role in American Life and the USC School of Cinematic Arts were behind the presentation and panel discussion.

A gallery of the center was used to project a series of home movies. taken by families of families and covering various rites of passage as well as everyday life. Most of us have had the experience of being asked to watch a home movie (or maybe one that was taken of a wedding or other family event by a professional) and feeling a little bored with it, especially when it's something that's been shown more than once. The quality of home movies varies, and in the early days of home movies, the stars did a lot of waving to the camera. These home movies are related to the reality TV shows of today though and I think are more interesting the more time has passed.

That's because Home Movies are time capsules. We get to know a lot about the stars - the family - by observing their clothing, hairstyles, and the places they lived and held ceremonies and celebrations. We can tell something about what they thought to be important, what they spent money on film and developing on. We can see them alive and moving, rather than posing for a picture.

HOME MOVIES can be an important preservation of family history, and whatever your family ethnic or religious culture, part of preserving memories of that culture.

C Ancestry Worship Genealogy. All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights

THIS MORNING I HANDWROTE NINE PAGES OF MY OWN FAMILY HISTORY : CELL MEMORY OR REINCARNATION?

This morning I hand wrote nine page of my own family history, before it was time to leave for the day. This writing was about how finding the historical records contradicted or enriched the storytelling and how the search for ancestors included this question "Who, if anyone, am I like?"

My interest in reincarnation, for instance, seems to be unprecedented in my family. In fact, I am sure that some family thinks I'm a "kook," for considering reincarnation to be the CYCLE OF SPIRITUAL LIFE.

Related to this, alternative spirituality - which is standard in much of the world, I believe that certain of my relations on both sides have had some psychic sense, but one person took it in stride and didn't find it was in conflict with her religion, while another person did a turn around late in life, feared that her interests in such subjects had been demonic, and started to shun those who still had some interest.

Taking reincarnation out of the traditional religious context of say, Hinduism, and put it into the category of modern hypnosis and regression, it becomes something that does not depend entirely on dogma. (There are those who also fear hypnosis and past life regression as demonic, however.)

I wonder about the people whose genes are in my body, at least in part, and if I have what's called "cell memory" of their lives. Cell memory is a theory that on some level our reactions to experiences are not about our lives but was passed on to us genetically by our parents (to whom we are most closely related) and other ancestors. For instance, you yourself might never had the all too common female experience of rape, but what about your great grandmother who might have been and never spoken of it? What if you actually are the descendant of a rapist? Do you hold power or powerlessness in your body?

Theories of reincarnation are far more satisfying to me than cell memory, but that doesn't mean that both can't contribute to who I am today. For those who have actually met grandparents and great grandparents, or an extended family, there may be role models or realizations that they are like someone they've met. For me these people are mostly mysteries. I have no reason to believe that I was one of them or any other known family member in a past life, but I will say that when I saw black and white pictures of a German town in present day Romania, I got shivers as if it looked familiar. Just as I did years ago, when looking over a travel brochure about India and saw a particular temple. One would be through an ancestor and the other through reincarnation.

C Ancestry Worship Genealogy 2012 All Rights reserved including International Rights and Internet Rights.

WHERE HAVE MY NATIVE AMERICAN ANCESTORS GONE ON THE CENSUS? ANSWER TO A QUESTION :

This is in answer to a question posed to me about proving Native American affiliation, in this case Apache. The person asking the question tells me that she was raised in an Apache home but finds no evidence genealogically, including on the census that her family is Apache.


My answer:

You are right. Not all Native American families were listed as Native American on U.S. Census. Depending on the census they may be listed as White or Black. In one family that was at least 50% Native American I found all children but one listed as White and the one listed as Black. At first we thought there had been an adoption. Simply this child was darker skinned than the rest.


Your family may not have reported themselves as Native American and even then, the tribe is rarely listed, unless it is a census that covers a reservation and considering what life on a reservation has been, why wouldn't a family want to live off it? More and more card carrying means registered with the tribe as in living on a reservation.


I think a DNA test or two would be a good start. Many people have been surprised to find out that they have the ethnic DNA of another group despite their appearances or upbringing. For instance, one family that I researched had one member out of dozens who in the 1800's married a Native American Cherokee and went to live on what became a reservation with him, their children thus showed up on Cherokee roles, and today that family is dismissive of their Scottish and Welsh and French Huguenot ancestors because they were not raised in that culture. Someone else I know, a blond blue eyed woman who had been told that her family did not discuss Grandpa's Native American origins, tested as Native American, but was not at all raised in that culture. She took pride in this though, and got involved in Native American interest groups and events but is not trying to claim affiliation.


That said, scanning for Apache genealogy research information on the web, I came up with several sites, some of which had inactive links. Among the questions one must try to answer is WHY APACHE? (It seems several groups are under this tribal name.) I'm linking to a good one that has a very interesting clue: this one is called CHIRICAHUAAPACHE and this is what it says:


The NATIONAL ARCHIVES BRANCH IN FORT WORTH TEXAS has one of the largest collections of American Indian genealogy materials, much of which is on microfilm. For a complete list of holdings write: Chief, Archives Branch, Federal Archives and Records Center, P. O. Box 6216, Fort Worth, TX 76115. Most of these records are full of family history details such as both Indian and "English" names, sex, degree of Indian blood, names of family, guardian, tribal and "band" affiliations, residence and occupation."


You should approach your research as anyone with any American heritage would. That means don't depend on the U.S. Census. You should try for church records because sometimes there are notations on them, including addresses between census. Military records may hold an answer because there were sometimes special troops comprised of all African-American or All Native American persons, and sometimes there will be notations on them. Approaching the tribe itself, asking them if they have records (or memories) of ancestors, is sometimes helpful, but don't be surprised if answers are slow or not coming. Tribal groups often rely on volunteers, tend not to be interested in getting DNA tests, and sometimes do not want to spread casino wealth around.

What about school records? Did anyone attend an "Indian school" or "mission" school or church?

Check back in with me once you've done more research!

TYPHOID MARY : THE MOST DANGEROUS WOMAN IN AMERICA

Have you ever found an ancestor's death on a church record and seen the notation that they died of Typhoid?

NOVA WGBH Boston Video's video takes the case of Mary Mallon who was, in 1906, an Irish immigrant who rose to the top of the servants profession by becoming a cook for private families. She was, unknown to herself, a carrier of the Typhoid disease. George Soper was a doctor who was performing bacterial detective work, and his research lead him to Mary, who, perhaps due to her level of ignorance, would not believe and could not accept that her presence had lead to the sickness and in some cases death of people she worked for.

Because typhoid had to be transmitted through food and improper (to be delicate about it) bathroom habits, Mary was first sequestered on an island near Manhattan and then allowed to work at something else - ironing. After a few years of barely making it ironing, Mary disappeared and found herself employment as a cook once again. She was, perhaps, in denial about how deadly she was to come in contact with, or simply, trying to survive.

The DVD includes actor depictions of Mary and the doctor, and is based on a book by Judith Walzer Leavitt called "Typhoid Mary: Captive to the Public's Heath."

CENSORSHIP OR PRIVACY? ORIGINAL APPLICATIONS OF SOCIAL SECURITY CARDS : USED TO BE AN EXCELLENT VALUE : NOW A WASTE OF GENEALOGY MONEY

My fellow genealogical researchers are telling me that it is no longer worth the $27 per, to send for the Social Security Original Application, in order to bust through blocks in research.

One of these people got a letter back. SS Administration had obliterated the names of the parents on the certificate. They were all blocked out.
It's all about the privacy of the living...

Let me explain. The original application gives the address of the person who applied, their birth date, their mother's maiden name (often providing a link to the next generation), as well as the place they went to work. That is,when the application was prior to the United States' requirement that children be given social security numbers which are now our national ID numbers, like it or not, rather than about working and paying into the system.

To reiterate, it used to be that you applied when you got your first job working for someone, usually in your teens. And for many years not all professions were required to pay into the system. If you worked for the rail road or owned a farm, for instance, it was assumed you would have a pension or be able to take care of yourself in your old age.

When I first started genealogical research I sent for a few of these at about $6. each. Then, perhaps because the system recognized the money they would make off of genealogy buffs, the fees were raised to $27. To order you had to supply some of the information you needed which could often be found on the Social Security Death Index.

Recently another genealogist friend of mine sent her $27 in and got a letter back stating if she did not know when the person was born and died, they would not send the copy.

Anyone who has dealt with identity theft knows what a nightmare that can be, so we must be understanding about this. However, I do believe the Social Security Administration should no longer accept the fee or return it when it is clear that the purpose for request is genealogy.

Linking to the Social Security PDF file on this subject.

FAMILY SEARCH 1940 INDEXING PROJECT SO CLOSE TO DONE YOU CAN TRY THE SEARCH FOR ALL 50 STATES AND THEN SOME

Checking the familysearch.org site today for 1940 census indexing project updates, I see that the word CONGRATULATIONS! appears instead of the US Map that kind of looked like a big puzzle, with state by state progress reports.

This project is the result of hundreds of volunteers giving of their time - and I believe their love - to help others access important family information. WE MUST SAY THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! to all those volunteers.

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 our research goals.

ANCESTRY WORSHIP : WHY I NAMED MY BLOG ANCESTRY WORSHIP

When I was coming up with a name for my blog, I decided that ANCESTOR worship implied one individual who a person is spawned from while ANCESTRY implies a worship of not only many individuals but one's ethnicity and heritage, which might also be a religious heritage.

For instance, you hear someone say "I'm of Irish Ancestry," or "I'm Jewish," much more than you hear someone say, "Genghis Khan is my ancestor."

I used the term worship because most genealogists I meet, be they hobbyists working only on their own family lines, or professionals, have a certain drive or passion for their research. You could say they are religious about it.

It is with great pride that people have shown me big scrap books full of pictures of their ancestors. It is with artistry that some of them have hand-drawn the most amazing charts. Each of the individuals they've put on their charts has lived a unique life and has contributed to our being here, even when that contribution was minimal. Lately genealogists are using various genealogy computer software that allow them to upload pictures of documents, pictures, and other artifacts that tell the story of each individual on their chart, and then some. These people are not in their direct blood line but to the left and right of it - their aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and their spouses and children, as examples.

Of course, in some cultures, ancestor or ancestry worship is by way of ritual, very much part of life. There are special times of the year, special festivals, to honor the dead. People decorate or visit graves, have a picnic in the cemetery or clean the graves, as a way of showing respect. In American culture the celebration of Halloween has turned a once holy holiday called All Souls, when people prayed for the departed, into a celebration that is sometimes evil. I would rather light a candle as a symbol of eternal life for someone who has passed away.

DOCUMENTING YOUR ADOPTED and BLOODLINE FAMILY

Some people are against genealogy - or afraid of it - because of adoption. Though I believe the roots of genealogy were about genetics - not marrying too close a cousin - or marrying a cousin to keep the wealth and status - as examples, there is always the nature versus nurture question. Are we like the people who raised us - that family? Or were we born with the personality and character that we display?

Today we have so many ways to define family! It's not all about a man and a woman who are heterosexual and legally married before they have children. There's a lot of families of choice as well.

I think an adopted person can claim membership in both nature and nurture, and do the research for both families one is a member of.

YOU CAN ONLY STRENGTHEN YOUR RESEARCH SKILLS doing so!

Which to do first?

How about the family you know better?

Yes, you must note that you were adopted. That doesn't change the official nature of the relationships though!

DOG DNA : MY NEW DOG IS A MIX : BUT WHAT I'M SEEING ON THE OUTSIDE MAY NOT BE HER DNA ON THE INSIDE

Took my new (old) dog to the vet recently and asked him if he agreed about her mixture from the looks of her. She's a rescue animal. My heart just sunk when I saw that she and her photo had been removed from the kennel where I'd visited her before, and heard she had just been "pulled." I apparently got her just a few minutes after she was to go to doggie Auschwitz.

She's in the MALTIPOO (Maltese - Poodle) category, at least from the looks of her hair, but I got her shaved of any fancy hairdoo and don't plan to go nutty with hair bows and so on. (I've never liked the Poodle or Maltese look, though I think this dog is beautiful. I picked her for her sweet personality.)

It's simply too hot here in Southern California to keep a dog that was meant to live in the snow belt, and so has a big coat, at least I think so. I don't want to run air conditioning all the time and frankly think it would be unfair to her, especially when the pavement is over 100 degrees and I see how fast she's run-walking with those little feet.

I told the vet that I thought knowing what breed an animal is might help me with her diet, her innate habits, and make me more knowledgeable about what ailments she's inclined to have. I told him I was very interested in DNA.

He told me that many of his clients had their dog's DNA run and that I would be very surprised, some small dogs turned out to be mostly large dogs genetically, and so looks are not such a great way to predict what might be happening inside.

My new (old) dog managed to leap over a barrier twice her height the first night she was with me so she is fearless. She also learned that whimpering will make me feel sorry for her and let her sleep with me. I'm delighted to say that within the week she has started to take her responsibility of alerting me to intruders very seriously. Like any new mom I've been living around her, worrying over her poops and if she's drinking enough water and why she hates her dog food.

HAVE YOU HAD YOUR DOG'S DNA TESTED?

ANCESTRY DATABASE INDEXED 1940 CENSUS : MORE STATES SEARCHABLE BUT...

I've already used the surname search feature to bring up families that I found by going page by page and so far NOT ONE HAS COME UP... Could it be that the indexers have once again failed to make it through misreading handwriting or ignorance of ethnic surnames?

THE SHAKERS : KEN BURNS AMERICA : PBS

The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, is what they called themselves, but because of their ecstatic dancing, the world called them Shakers, kind of like Quakers. Most people today, if they've heard of them at all, think of their furniture, which is very valuable on the antiques market, and quite simple and elegant. (They would have had very little of it in their how residential housing, which was more like dorms with separation of males and females.) They founded a Utopian Community that had several properties or locations in the United States.

Using diaries, interviews, archival phones, music, and so on, Ken Burns' video is wonderful to watch. Shaker life was industrious and inventive, but men and women did not mix and lived celibate lives, so their numbers did not increase. They adopted some children. Some people left to marry and live a more normal lifestyle. Today there are a few Shakers still living and a few properties that they still own.

I've never met anyone through the years working on their genealogy project who found family in a Shaker Community.

FAMILY SEARCH 1940 PROGRESS IS AMAZING : MOST OF THE UNITED STATES IS NOW SEARCHABLE INDEXED

The original goal was October first and I can tell you right now that they're going to beat that!

WE HAVE SO MANY PEOPLE TO THANK!

(South and North Carolina and New Jersey still need help!)

I check every other day, awaiting not only New Jersey, but Pennsylvania, Michigan, New York and Texas... and have already found people in Florida.

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 our research goals.

THE SELFISH GENE by RICHARD DAWKINS : ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY BOOK REVIEW

THE SELFISH GENE by RICHARD DAWKINS : ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY BOOK REVIEW

This book, first published in 1989 and in it's third printing after selling million in 2006, is still relevant when it comes to asking questions about how genetics influences individuals and society and culture. Using examples from the animal kingdom, Dawkins moves to the realities of human life.

What does the author mean when he uses the word SELFISH which sounds like self-involved and mean? Why not use the term self preserving? Dawkins seems to be saying that animals show a self interest in preserving their own genetics in the way they organize their society or culture, in the ways they favor certain offspring, and that for humans using contraception may be the best way to preserve a family.

Does genetics explain why in nature, many fathers put in less effort to preserve offspring than mothers? In humans is this a matter of socialization or enculturation? I would say that in humans modern fathers seem to overall be putting in less effort to preserve offspring than the fathers of my father's era!

Do maternal uncles (your mother's brother really) have more interest in their neices and nephews than the paternal uncles, since they are more certain that there is a genetic link between themselves and the child?

Famine, plague and war have reduced populations, and so has birth control. Uncontrolled birth rates lead to uncontrolled death rates according to the author.

Using animals who are not human, the author says that many animals defend their territory, which includes defending the individuals who carry their genes.

Page 113 "In many cases females refuse to mate with males who do not possess a territory. Indeed it often happens that a female whose mate is defeated and his territory conquered promptly attached herself to the victor... No territory, no breeding. Automatic submission by lower ranking (individuals) is preferable to prolonged fights..."

Animal dominance. Indirect competition over females. Is this why in the old days parents quizzed a young woman's date about his ability to support her and the family before they would consent to allowing them to associate? How many young men would be able to mate at all if females refused to be available for dates until he could buy a house?

Also according to Dawkins, Individuals who have too many children are penalized, not because the whole population goes extinct but because fewer of their children survive.

(Page 117) ... "If a husband and wife have more children than they can feed, the state, which means the rest of the population, simply steps in and keeps the surplus children alive and healthy. But the welfare state is a very unnatural thing."

And so we go into politics without ever mentioning the word, or the coming Presidential election. With 26 million Americans now in need of government help to afford food, I would say that a great many are reproducing without being able to afford to, and that the state will become mom and dad to very many. Another notion of my father's era father was that God Will Provide, that When There's A Will There's a Way, and that There Is No Shame in an Honest Day's Work.

This book had me thinking beyond it!

C 2012 Ancestry Worship Genealogy All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD : NO SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER?

If you're looking for a Social Security number, on the Death Index, or because you want to send for the Original Application, which would give you the mother's maiden name for an ancestor, and can't find one, the reason may be that the person never applied or paid into the system because they were WORKIN ON THE RAILROAD! Here is a link to the RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD. It announces that the information will now be acquired through the National Archives.

BIRTH PARENT and CHILD REUNIONS : FIRST SUGGESTION : WRITE FROM YOUR HEART

Want to find the child you gave up for adoption?

Ready to face the reality rather than all the hopes and fears you've had through the years?

Your questions are the questions of most birth parents.

Was your child actually adopted, or did they live through a series of foster homes?

Were they adopted locally or taken to another city, county, state, or country?

Was your child really raised better than you could have done?

Were their adoptive parents good parents to your child (nobody's perfect) or was your child abused?

Is your now child healthy and well adjusted to life? We're they educated? Do they work? Have their own family (are you a grandparent?)

Does your child want to meet you? Do they hate you? Are you really ready?
My first suggestion is this: Write it out - pour your heart out on paper. Talk it out with a best friend - confidant or maybe a spiritual advisor or therapist if you've kept this child a secret.

Write 20 questions you don't know the answers to.
Write the answers to those questions that you hope for.
What questions would you ask your son or daughter if you met them?

Are you prepared to learn that your child is maybe, just maybe, someone you would not want to know. (What if your child turns out to be unhappy with the gender of their body and wants to transition to the other gender? Personally, I seem to deal with transgendering people better than most, I think because of my belief in reincarnation, but this is a challenge; example Cher and Chastity "Chaz" Bono.) Maybe your child will have a world view that is very different than yours.

You've been unable to raise this child. This child is of you and has your genetics but not your influence. The old Nature versus Nurture question prevails.

In my experience contemplating these questions is the beginning work of finding the child you gave birth to or fathered. There is something spiritual to it. The soul searching is the first order of a successful research because questions unanswered are likely to stall it.

I've had the experience of trying to work with and for someone who created issues off and on for over 4 years because they really were not ready.

C 2012 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy All Rights Reserved including International Rights and Internet Rights

BRYAN SYKES DNA USA : SO GLAD I READ THE BOOK! WHAT I LEARNED

Earlier I mentioned reading the latest Bryan Sykes was on my agenda. Well, I read it, and it was a terrific book, at once a travel adventure by a British man first time across the USA by train, as well as what I've come to expect from Sykes; a DNA adventure.

One of the most interesting things I learned about DNA is that these day's science can tell you that your liver came from your African DNA (and the tribe) while your heart came from European (Celtic maybe). As a result, medicine may some day be more accurate in prescribing medications or treatments based on genetics that may not be obvious looking at you.

Something else I learned was more relevant to GENEALOGY. You see, proving Native American ancestry is something that so many people want to do these days. Used to be that people hid their "Indian" heritage for many reasons, including discrimination. Sykes takes about the willingness of many Americans - White and Black - who want to find out if the family rumors are true. Others, however, are sure they do not want DNA tests because... well because it might prove they do not have enough Native American ancestry to retain their tribal rights, especially to casino money.

In one case a tribe threw out a couple hundred members who were African American, these people took the test and came out between 6% and 30% native American. However, Sykes points out, the remaining members of the tribe don't want to take the same test and find out they are also less than entitled.

Over all, this was a terrific book.

I highly recommend it, and hope to find the time to read all the previous books he's written about the subject!

1940 CENSUS ADVICE : SAME PLACE IS NOT THE SAME AS SAME HOUSE!

Here is a little reminder about the 1940 census. If it says that the person lived in the same place in 1936 that does not mean the same address, it means the same town. Therefore, if the person lives in a big city, they may mean anywhere in the city, or even the same county. The question was asked because the economic disaster Americans were living in meant moving around to keep a roof over their heads. Millions were homeless or near homeless, but perhaps what saved them was the willingness to take in relatives and friends, pull together and make it through.

Check where the person lived also along with marriage information. A recently married couple might report living in different places four years earlier because they weren't married yet. If one person seems to be a long way from where home was four years earlier, this often leads to family in that other place, or someone just passing through town due to employment, military, CCC's...

C Ancestry Worship Genealogy All Rights Reserved including International and Internet rights.

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 our research goals.

1940 CENSUS : FAMILYSEARCH : UPDATE ON STATES READY TO BE SEARCHED BY NAME!

The following states are now activated for searching by name! There are still a number of states that desperately need volunteers. Do one page!

VERMONT ALASKA IDAHO NEVADA WYOMING ARIZONA UTAH COLORADO KANSAS DELAWARE VIRGINIA FLORIDA MAINE NEW HAMPSHIRE
WOW!

MOVING MIDWAY : DVD : A STORY ABOUT THE MIDWAY PLANTATION OF RALEIGH NORTH CAROLINA

"MOVING MIDWAY" is a personal story about the Hinton family of North Carolina, who owned thousands of acres that has been land grants in the 18th century, and three plantations, the last of which, standing over 150 years, was the Midway Plantation.

Like any old house in which six generations of the same family have lived there are ghosts and there is the memory of the elders of the family and of living in the house.

Our notions of the Big Plantation House come from Hollywood and Gone With The Wind though.

Midway isn't all that much bigger than a modern suburban house, most plantations were not all that big, and few had as many slaves as depicted in the movies.

Trouble is 600 homes are being built in a new subdivision next to the house and property held by this family over 200 years. Thousands of vehicles including noisy big rigs go past every day on the street out front. It's time to move the house.

The physical aspect of moving a house to 40 acres of land that was once part of the original land grant is interesting in itself, but along with the controversy comes another descendant of the family, an African American professor from Yankee territory, and the discovery of 100 African American cousins though one of the cooks who was enslaved there and the owner of the house, are alive and some few also have memories of the family and stories of life there. The Professor of history is Robert Hinton. Together they explore the personal and historical mythologies.
I recommend this film which came out in 2008.

THE SEVEN DAUGHTERS OF EVE : BRYAN SYKES : EXCERPT : HOW TO BE A CLAN MOTHER?

Page 197-198-199

"There are a few qualifications you needed to be a clan mother. The first is that you needed to have daughters. ... A woman who had only sons could not be a clan mother because her children would never pass on the mitochondrial DNA they received from her, so that is the first rule. The second is that you had to have at least two daughters. ... The clan mother is the most recent maternal ancestor that all the members of a clan have n common. Imagine a clan with ten million living members and imagine that we knew perfectly from the registry of births, marriages, and deaths exactly how they are all related. As we went back in time, generation by generation, we would see the maternal lines slowly joining up. The lines in brothers and sisters would converge,. after just one generation, in their mother. After two generations, cousins would converge on their maternal grandmother, their mother's mother. Three generations ago it would be the second cousins whose lines coalesced in their maternal great -grandmothers. And so on. At each generation there would be fewer and fewer people in the clan who had maternal descendants living today. Eventually, hundreds or even thousands of generations ago, there would be only two women in the clan who could claim to have maternal descendants living in the twenty-first century. Further back still, the maternal lines of these two women would converge on a single woman - the true clan mother. And to be in that position she must have had not one but two daughters. ...

A clan mother did not have to be the only woman around at the time and she certainly wouldn't have been. But she is the only one who is connected through this unbroken maternal thread right through to the present day... lines died out..."

C 2001 Bryan Sykes Norton Publishers

I'm saving up to have my DNA done. I want to do the test that takes you back only 3 generations, just to see if a rumor about my heritage is true. The DNA test that takes you all the way back to the CLAN MOTHER is a different test. I sure hope that someday I can do that one too... DNA testing is going down in price (slowly) while the databases expand and increase our potential knowledge rapidly.

MARY CASATT : MOTHER AND CHILD

FAMILYSEARCH 1940 CENSUS PROJECT SPEEDING ALONG - A FEW STATES ARE ALREADY SEARCHABLE!

Dear Genealogy Maniacs, 

If you, like me, took part in crashing the National Archives site the day the 1940 census opened to the public, you will be EXTREMELY EXCITED TO KNOW that several states are already searchable by name, that several more have been completely indexed but are not yet searchable, and that the deadlines are being beaten... volunteers from genealogy societies, members of various stakes of LDS, and individuals, have all contributed. I personally met a man who has indexed over 60,000 names and a woman who has indexed over 20,000. DELAWARE, OREGON, COLORADO, KANSAS, and VIRGINIA are searchable. I also saw a demonstration of the application that is used and it sure is making it easier to read and submit - the wonders of technology! Now I know that indexing is not for everyone, but I want to encourage you to do a batch or two (one batch is one page of an ED), especially in the states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey and New York, which need help! (You do not need to be from the state to participate!) To use the FAMILY SEARCH 1940 site, go to the FamilySearch site, and click on the top left 1940 picture. You'll then see a map of the USA color coded to show progress. (Or you can take the easy way there and click on the title of this post!) 

SAXONS VIKINGS AND CELTS by BRYAN SYKES

Were the first inhabitants of Britain a race of Giants under Albion, a son of the sea-god Poseidon, who had a band of fifty women, who had all killed their husbands?

What is myth and legend but doesn't hold up when science pays its part in recreating the human story? Bryan Sykes's SAXONS, VIKINGS, and CELTS, is the result of DNA testing over 10,000 people living in the British Isles. Here you will learn that:

The blue tattooed Picts were Celtic too.

The LeTene style, now most strongly associated with Celtic Art, began not on the Atlantic ocean costs but in view of the Alps, and when there was a mass migration it was not by land but by sea, following the Mediterranean, around the Iberian peninsula and north.

That the evidence for the Viking's plundering is there, but also there is the evidence that the Vikings brought along some Viking women to procreate with.

The Genghis Khan effect is that 8 percent of men in Mongolia have inherited this gene because Genghis style was to kill all the men and inseminate all the women. But the term is also used when scientists find that a man or clan or group of men dominated the women. (Some fertile men never got to mate.)

That a few surnames show that all men in the clan show a DNA signature; you could find this signature elsewhere and know without a doubt what CLAN. Are you a Macdonald, McDougall, or Macalister? 200,000 men carry these genes, originated with a man named Somerled, a Celtic hero who helped drive away the Vikings.

Your blood type is associated with your DNA. The cause is very slight changes in the DNA of the blood group itself.

As with the Seven Daughters of Eve, the book he published years earlier, as a writer Sykes will warm you up before he delivers the information, so that the myths and legends are understood first. This book was published by Norton in 2006... so it also stands as the state of the art book on DNA use for genealogy at that time.

Now I want to ask Sykes if there is any way he can get DNA from the lone woman who was found in Los Angeles' LaBrea Tar Pits, where thousands of animal bones have been found!

SHOAH FOUNDATION TO INCLUDE GENOCIDE TESTIMONIALS OF ARMENIANS AND OTHERS

The SHOAH FOUNDATION will now be taking testimonials of those who experienced the Armenian Genocide. Funny, I just posted about the genocide and saw an article in the local news about it. The link to SHOAH foundation is at the title - click!

By the way, CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY at NORTHRIDGE has just had an "ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AWARENESS WEEK."  That's terrific!

1940 U.S. CENSUS SURPRISES : ED DISTRICTS THAT ARE COUNTS OF INSTITUTIONS AND NOTHING ELSE

While the various indexing projects go on, I'm reading a select number of cities page by page.  The subsription database ANCESTRY has Nevada and Delaware (two states with small populations in 1940 indexed if you want to try them out.)   

 I've now found, in New Jersey and in Pennsylvania, two extremely populated states circa 1940, that institutions are getting their own ED district.  I've now read entire lists of prisoners, orphans, and tuberculosis hospitals on single EDs.  Some of these are just a few pages.   ARE YOU NOTICING THIS IN ANY OTHER STATES?  LET ME KNOW! 

REINCARNATION : BBC LEARNING : SCIENTISTS TRY TO PROVE IT ISN'T REAL

TSARS MISSING CHILDREN SOLVED BY DNA STUDY

"All five children of Russia's last Tsar were murdered by the Bolsheviks, according to a new DNA analysis that ends decades of conspiracy theories about family members who had escaped abroad. "

Remains thought to be Russia's last tsar Nicholas II, his wife Tsarina Alexander Fyodorovna, and children Prince Alexei and Princesses Olga, Tatyana, Maria and Anastasia were proven to be who they are because of the donated DNA of Prince Phillip of Great Britain, the husband of Queen Elizabeth. Over 200 people who claimed to be Anastasia in their lifetimes were proven to be either liars or deluded. Early in this story, remains had been found and identified except for the two youngest children. The children were found in a separate grave.

Linking to the London Telegraph Story!