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.