30 October 2016
DAY OF THE DEAD
Coming up November 1 and 2, celebrated in Mexico as a day in which families visit and picnic on graves, in the Catholic Church this is the time of year for praying for the souls of the departed. Enjoy coloring or otherwise using these images for personal use and non profit blogs and such from Dover Publications. Sign up with Dover for more information.
28 October 2016
ARE DOG'S REINCARNATED PEOPLE? LESSONS OF LOYALTY
This may seem like an odd topic for ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY, but as my more frequent readers know, I combine professional level genealogy research with a vivid interest in the human family and human beingness - DNA, early migrations of our ancestors, ethnicity, historical and cultural studies, some archeology, and the spiritual aspects of life, including theories about genetic memory (sometimes called cell memory), and reincarnation. I ask, could it be that a person, when discovering an ancestor, is actually discovering themselves - in a past life?
This week I encountered two individuals while out walking my dog who had interesting things to say about dogs and reincarnation. (The term transmutation is correct when saying that a person has incarnated from an animal to human life (usually seen as progress), or when a person next incarnated into an animal (usually seen as a demotion) but the term reincarnation is used more to describe any repeats of life on earth.) Much of the world has long believed in reincarnation, and some Christians do, though usually, in Catholicism and most versions of main stream Christianity, we learn that this one life is it. We have one chance to prove ourselves worthy of eternal heaven as an afterlife. Or, we wait after death for a resurrection by God.
I was walking my dog in the park when I saw a man up ahead wearing the rolled white head dress of a Siik. I couldn't help but stop and talk to him. He was pushing a fancy cart that contained not only his bright-eyed Chihuahua, who sure did seem to be enjoying being up front for the ride, and his beautiful toddler, who clearly loved her dog. He told me that a friend of his was told by their guru that his dog was, in the last life, his partner, but that she had been reincarnated into this dog to learn the lesson of loyalty!
Certainly some pet dogs seem to be all about that, especially the ones that make the news for walking a thousand miles and somehow finding the family that left them behind when they moved, or the ones who sit on a person's grave and don't want to give up on them even though it's been a while.
Then, my dog and I stopped at a corner store where a few of the employees are from India, and I tied her up on the door since I didn't want to take her inside against their rules. One of the clerks and I got to talking about dogs and I told him mine was such a person. He said he was a Buddhist, and incarnation into a dog was definitely a punishment.
My dog, I tell everyone, is most certainly feminine, not only because that her sex, but also her gender. I give, as examples, her love of baths, her love of being dressed in clothes, wanting to smell and look pretty, as well as the way she has taken to pretending to be not interested at all when males approach her. She has developed very specific taste, preferring males who are well past puppyhood, who are about her size, and who are usually poodles or part poodles! One of these males lives across the way and high up on a balcony and I've seen them lock eyes - like Romeo and Juliet. However, I've seen her and a large young male fall in love with each other at first sight - not wanting to pass each other but stay put. I've seen more than one male pup, at the sight of her, take in a deep breath and stare. (In a month or two, when they've been there, done that, they get over it.)
Many people who have rescued dogs from shelters have stories about the DOG PICKING THEM. I do think my dog picked me, though I don't have any strong feelings about her having been in my past life or lives. I do hope, however, that I will be someday reunited with her in heaven, that she will be waiting for me when I get there, hopefully, and, full confession here, sometimes I do call her "daughter!"
Because many people who have pets these days see them as, perhaps not human, but as sentient beings, the relationship has changed for those people and those dogs. There are still wild dogs, dogs who help people herd or hunt, dogs who people eat, dogs who people steal and sell for medical experiments, dogs who are terribly abused, dogs who stay outside their entire lives and never have a comfortable bed, and then there are dogs like mine, who is right now, all curled up in a swirl of old blankets. I can only hope her previous owners were good to her! She is not spoiled. She is a survivor.
C 2016 All Rights Reserved. Ancestry Worship Genealogy
This week I encountered two individuals while out walking my dog who had interesting things to say about dogs and reincarnation. (The term transmutation is correct when saying that a person has incarnated from an animal to human life (usually seen as progress), or when a person next incarnated into an animal (usually seen as a demotion) but the term reincarnation is used more to describe any repeats of life on earth.) Much of the world has long believed in reincarnation, and some Christians do, though usually, in Catholicism and most versions of main stream Christianity, we learn that this one life is it. We have one chance to prove ourselves worthy of eternal heaven as an afterlife. Or, we wait after death for a resurrection by God.
I was walking my dog in the park when I saw a man up ahead wearing the rolled white head dress of a Siik. I couldn't help but stop and talk to him. He was pushing a fancy cart that contained not only his bright-eyed Chihuahua, who sure did seem to be enjoying being up front for the ride, and his beautiful toddler, who clearly loved her dog. He told me that a friend of his was told by their guru that his dog was, in the last life, his partner, but that she had been reincarnated into this dog to learn the lesson of loyalty!
Certainly some pet dogs seem to be all about that, especially the ones that make the news for walking a thousand miles and somehow finding the family that left them behind when they moved, or the ones who sit on a person's grave and don't want to give up on them even though it's been a while.
Then, my dog and I stopped at a corner store where a few of the employees are from India, and I tied her up on the door since I didn't want to take her inside against their rules. One of the clerks and I got to talking about dogs and I told him mine was such a person. He said he was a Buddhist, and incarnation into a dog was definitely a punishment.
My dog, I tell everyone, is most certainly feminine, not only because that her sex, but also her gender. I give, as examples, her love of baths, her love of being dressed in clothes, wanting to smell and look pretty, as well as the way she has taken to pretending to be not interested at all when males approach her. She has developed very specific taste, preferring males who are well past puppyhood, who are about her size, and who are usually poodles or part poodles! One of these males lives across the way and high up on a balcony and I've seen them lock eyes - like Romeo and Juliet. However, I've seen her and a large young male fall in love with each other at first sight - not wanting to pass each other but stay put. I've seen more than one male pup, at the sight of her, take in a deep breath and stare. (In a month or two, when they've been there, done that, they get over it.)
Many people who have rescued dogs from shelters have stories about the DOG PICKING THEM. I do think my dog picked me, though I don't have any strong feelings about her having been in my past life or lives. I do hope, however, that I will be someday reunited with her in heaven, that she will be waiting for me when I get there, hopefully, and, full confession here, sometimes I do call her "daughter!"
Because many people who have pets these days see them as, perhaps not human, but as sentient beings, the relationship has changed for those people and those dogs. There are still wild dogs, dogs who help people herd or hunt, dogs who people eat, dogs who people steal and sell for medical experiments, dogs who are terribly abused, dogs who stay outside their entire lives and never have a comfortable bed, and then there are dogs like mine, who is right now, all curled up in a swirl of old blankets. I can only hope her previous owners were good to her! She is not spoiled. She is a survivor.
C 2016 All Rights Reserved. Ancestry Worship Genealogy
19 October 2016
13 October 2016
WRITING THAT FAMILY HISTORY FOR THE FUTURE - THE NOSE KNOWS!
Recently I started handwriting family stories with the idea that I will be putting these together with documents and sending them out to some of the newer members of the family. These people were born way too late to have ever met the people I did, such as my grandmother who is their great great grandmother. I think how different it might have been if I had ever received such information about my own great great grandmother and had more of a sense about her!
I try my best to tell the stories with research providing the proven information, but also will add the ones that are interesting and probably true, but with the hope that my recipients will someday wish to do some research - perhaps in other countries - to prove these stories true - or to add to them.
As I handwrite, I'm surprising myself with how much I remember, and I'm also imagining how different people might take what they read. I know that once the information is in their hands, they may not even be interested, or they might put it aside until one day, maybe a bad day, they will get around to a reread and get some inspiration. Maybe some of them will think, "Who is she anyway? - oh her!" and some of them might think, "Why look back? Just look to the future."
My grandmother, their Great Great grandmother, actually used to say that very thing! She taught her children that there was no use in looking back because you couldn't change the past.
One of the reasons I want to do this is that I recently saw some pictures of two of these children, who would be her Great Great grandchildren, and I instantly saw that they LOOKED like, not their parents, not their grandparents, but their Great Great grandparents! (And a third looks like my mother's sister!)
One of them has the distinctive nose that was said to have "run in the family" on Great Great Grandma's side, and I'm awed by the mysteriousness of DNA, genetics, how that all works.
I don't know if I'll ever meet this person to see him with the nose in person, but I want to assure him it is a family trait. As this seems to be a family trait not seen in other descendants, it was last seen on someone born in the 19th century! How I hope his 19th century nose will take him wisely into the 21st!
Another person has the rest of her family towering over her and calls herself "the peanut." I want to tell her about her Great Great Grandmother who was barely five feet tall.
I also, because I don't think anyone else has, tell them about what their GG Grandparent's house looked like and smelled like, from the horribly hard and uncomfortable horse-hair filled sofa in the living room, to the goldfish in a bowl in the window, who happened to, more than once, freeze over the winter, and reanimate in the thaw!
C 2016 All Rights Reserved
I try my best to tell the stories with research providing the proven information, but also will add the ones that are interesting and probably true, but with the hope that my recipients will someday wish to do some research - perhaps in other countries - to prove these stories true - or to add to them.
As I handwrite, I'm surprising myself with how much I remember, and I'm also imagining how different people might take what they read. I know that once the information is in their hands, they may not even be interested, or they might put it aside until one day, maybe a bad day, they will get around to a reread and get some inspiration. Maybe some of them will think, "Who is she anyway? - oh her!" and some of them might think, "Why look back? Just look to the future."
My grandmother, their Great Great grandmother, actually used to say that very thing! She taught her children that there was no use in looking back because you couldn't change the past.
One of the reasons I want to do this is that I recently saw some pictures of two of these children, who would be her Great Great grandchildren, and I instantly saw that they LOOKED like, not their parents, not their grandparents, but their Great Great grandparents! (And a third looks like my mother's sister!)
One of them has the distinctive nose that was said to have "run in the family" on Great Great Grandma's side, and I'm awed by the mysteriousness of DNA, genetics, how that all works.
I don't know if I'll ever meet this person to see him with the nose in person, but I want to assure him it is a family trait. As this seems to be a family trait not seen in other descendants, it was last seen on someone born in the 19th century! How I hope his 19th century nose will take him wisely into the 21st!
Another person has the rest of her family towering over her and calls herself "the peanut." I want to tell her about her Great Great Grandmother who was barely five feet tall.
I also, because I don't think anyone else has, tell them about what their GG Grandparent's house looked like and smelled like, from the horribly hard and uncomfortable horse-hair filled sofa in the living room, to the goldfish in a bowl in the window, who happened to, more than once, freeze over the winter, and reanimate in the thaw!
C 2016 All Rights Reserved
10 October 2016
GENEALOGY DETECTIVES ! HELP ME FIND THE RIGHTFUL OWNER - MAUREEN O'TOOLE ? - SAINT CHARLES BORROMEO CHURCH
Part of being a genealogist is having respect for other people's family' stuff. Although I will be contacting the church directly, I need some help to find Maureen O'Toole, whose parents were Ollie and Millie O' Toole, and who lived in North Hollywood/ Valley Village and may have been members of the parish. If these people are familiar to you, please leave me a COMMENT, along with your e-mail address (preferred) or phone number, which I will not publish on the Internet but use to contact you.
I was walking my dog early Saturday morning when I saw a spill of cards under a tree. There was also a slippery plastic laundry type bag nearby, as if maybe someone didn't know they had lost the cards they were carrying in the bag. This was not near a garbage bin. I got closer and noticed that the cards and letters were not wet from the sprinklers, nor dirty or smelly, though clearly near a well used path. "It must have been recently that they were lost," I thought! No one was around, so I decided that before they could get wet, dirty, or smelly, to take this all home, look at it, and see if I could determine the rightful owner!
The genealogy detective in me was enthralled as I saw that most of the stack were MOTHERS DAY CARDS, with Maureen's profuse love for her mom expressed in so very many handwritten notes inside. There were envelopes without corresponding cards in them, from Rossmore, California, Sparta, New Jersey, La Crescenta, California (the Flynns) and Hopewell, Virginia, as well as older yellowed correspondence from a male writer based in Saint Louis, which were all about theatrical events, as well as a large envelope that had once contained a will. I noticed an envelope from Saint Charles Church and an address in No Ho, but I suspect that the O'Toole family has not lived at the address since 2005, the last postmark in the collection.
THERE IS A 25th Anniversary card from Ollie to Millie. From this, I know that they married on June 23, 1937 and the card is from 1962. At the time, either Ollie or Millie's own mother was still alive as she sent a card. Thus I believe that Ollie and Millie, who were probably born 1917 or before, have likely passed away and that the person I'm looking for is their loving daughter Maureen or a close relative, such as a grandchild, niece, or nephew.
Another clue is a Christmas card to "Aunt Millie" from Jerry, Randy, Jeffery, and Julia Rose. Either Millie or Maureen were sometimes called "Mo."
There are some cards handmade by Maureen in the pile, an old photo of a young man. That white card below is Ollie's Silver Wedding Anniversary card to Millie and the card with the orange stone on it is a handmade Silver Wedding card from Maureen to her parents.
UPDATE OCTOBER 13th. Progress. A short letter has been delivered to the church.
But more amazing than that is that when I went to drop off the letter, I picked up a bulletin, and flipping through it, saw that there was a Mass being said for a Maureen O'Toole, on October 9th! So I asked the desk clerk and confirmed she had died. So on the Internet I found an OBIT with a picture of Maureen, and some other information. Ollie was a character actor who had worked in cowboy films. Maureen had an acting credit too. And there was a funeral Mass for her on August 31st, 2016, plus mortuary information. She had died at 73! I called the mortuary and will be sending a letter they may pass on. Between the church and the mortuary, I feel certain that we will locate SOMEONE who may be a close family member, eventually, if they are responsive. Besides a feeling of synchronicity that in dropping off the letter I thought to pickup and read the bulletin, this morning yet another synchronicity occurred. I waited outside a library for it to open, and got into a conversation with a man sitting on the bench next to me. So though this library is miles from the other locations, when I told him about being out with my dog so early that it wasn't quite light out yet, and being attracted by the envelopes, he said, "I was riding my bike and saw those a few days ago, wondered what they were, but didn't stop!"
ACTOR OLLIE O'TOOLE on IMDB (the movie database) HER DAD WAS BORN IN PITTSBURGH and he actually worked as a character actor in more films than on this list.
UPDATE! ONE WEEK AFTER THIS POST, though the church, a connection was made. I'll be delivering the collection to a go between any day! So, Maureen RIP!
I was walking my dog early Saturday morning when I saw a spill of cards under a tree. There was also a slippery plastic laundry type bag nearby, as if maybe someone didn't know they had lost the cards they were carrying in the bag. This was not near a garbage bin. I got closer and noticed that the cards and letters were not wet from the sprinklers, nor dirty or smelly, though clearly near a well used path. "It must have been recently that they were lost," I thought! No one was around, so I decided that before they could get wet, dirty, or smelly, to take this all home, look at it, and see if I could determine the rightful owner!
The genealogy detective in me was enthralled as I saw that most of the stack were MOTHERS DAY CARDS, with Maureen's profuse love for her mom expressed in so very many handwritten notes inside. There were envelopes without corresponding cards in them, from Rossmore, California, Sparta, New Jersey, La Crescenta, California (the Flynns) and Hopewell, Virginia, as well as older yellowed correspondence from a male writer based in Saint Louis, which were all about theatrical events, as well as a large envelope that had once contained a will. I noticed an envelope from Saint Charles Church and an address in No Ho, but I suspect that the O'Toole family has not lived at the address since 2005, the last postmark in the collection.
THERE IS A 25th Anniversary card from Ollie to Millie. From this, I know that they married on June 23, 1937 and the card is from 1962. At the time, either Ollie or Millie's own mother was still alive as she sent a card. Thus I believe that Ollie and Millie, who were probably born 1917 or before, have likely passed away and that the person I'm looking for is their loving daughter Maureen or a close relative, such as a grandchild, niece, or nephew.
Another clue is a Christmas card to "Aunt Millie" from Jerry, Randy, Jeffery, and Julia Rose. Either Millie or Maureen were sometimes called "Mo."
There are some cards handmade by Maureen in the pile, an old photo of a young man. That white card below is Ollie's Silver Wedding Anniversary card to Millie and the card with the orange stone on it is a handmade Silver Wedding card from Maureen to her parents.
UPDATE OCTOBER 13th. Progress. A short letter has been delivered to the church.
But more amazing than that is that when I went to drop off the letter, I picked up a bulletin, and flipping through it, saw that there was a Mass being said for a Maureen O'Toole, on October 9th! So I asked the desk clerk and confirmed she had died. So on the Internet I found an OBIT with a picture of Maureen, and some other information. Ollie was a character actor who had worked in cowboy films. Maureen had an acting credit too. And there was a funeral Mass for her on August 31st, 2016, plus mortuary information. She had died at 73! I called the mortuary and will be sending a letter they may pass on. Between the church and the mortuary, I feel certain that we will locate SOMEONE who may be a close family member, eventually, if they are responsive. Besides a feeling of synchronicity that in dropping off the letter I thought to pickup and read the bulletin, this morning yet another synchronicity occurred. I waited outside a library for it to open, and got into a conversation with a man sitting on the bench next to me. So though this library is miles from the other locations, when I told him about being out with my dog so early that it wasn't quite light out yet, and being attracted by the envelopes, he said, "I was riding my bike and saw those a few days ago, wondered what they were, but didn't stop!"
THE COLLECTION HAS MANY CARDS TO MILLIE FROM MAUREEN,
especially Mother's Day cards, with her great love for her mom expressed in handwritten messages on large, beautiful cards.
I can just imagine Maureen shopping for the perfect card to send!
HERE IS A PICTURE OF MAUREEN
THAT IS ON THE INTERNET ASSOCIATED WITH HER OBITS.
1939-2016
ACTOR OLLIE O'TOOLE on IMDB (the movie database) HER DAD WAS BORN IN PITTSBURGH and he actually worked as a character actor in more films than on this list.
UPDATE! ONE WEEK AFTER THIS POST, though the church, a connection was made. I'll be delivering the collection to a go between any day! So, Maureen RIP!
02 October 2016
WORKHOUSES - REFORMATORIES- PRISON RECORDS - LATEST ON ANCESTRY.COM DATABASES - CRIMINAL USE
As you know, this BlogSpot is not owned, operated, or related to the ANCESTRY.COM databases, and though I do use those databases, I also use others, as well as microfilms, books, and much else.
I do check to see what is new or updated on ANCESTRY.COM every few months, even if I'm not working on a genealogy research project in which I would use those databases. I feel that I should always be current with knowledge of resources, just in case.
I recently discovered one called PENNSYLVANIA PRISON, REFORMATORY, and WORKHOUSE RECORDS 1829-1971. To me the 1971 is MUCH TOO RECENT TO BE PUBLISHED as it might OUT PEOPLE WHO ARE ALIVE.
I'm concerned about the lack of discrimination and the use of these databases by both Ancestry and the State of Pennsylvania... but I'll have to check and see if such records have always been, like marriage and divorce records, open to the public in Pennsylvania. In California arrest records are, but I'm not aware of the public easily learning about sentences, and other details.
At this point I'm very concerned about the use of genealogy databases by criminals, in this era in which other countries are hacking our e-mails, web sites, even voters registrations in order to ID THEFT. Identity theft is not just about ruining a person's credit and financial reputation, but in ASSUMING IDENTITIES.
Criminals doing this targeted a senior citizen couple in my neighborhood, calling them with knowledge of their children's names and even a grandchild's name. They had their address and phone number - easy enough. They claimed that they were calling from Mexico, with a made up story about how their beloved grandson had gone there for a wedding, drank too much, acted crazy, and was in a Mexican prison. For a sum of $40,000 (their life savings) he could be bailed out of jail and returned to the United States and no one need to know. His young life would not need to be ruined with an arrest record. So much did the criminals know about this family that the seniors wired the money to Mexico, only to learn their grandson had never left the United States and was alive and well (and not at all criminal) at his college...
Never the less I did look at the database, which names people, the reason why they were arrested, the time or fine they were sentenced to, their prison job, and any amount of money they had earned while in the prison, reformatory (reform school - indicative of a juvenile delinquent), or workhouse (place a person works off their debts), from a historical point of view.
These places were frightening to the people who were put into them, and the offences are quite telling.
For instance, I came across men who were put into prison for sodomy and women who were called Com Prost (Common Prostitute). The Com Prost must have not been an Uncommon Prostitute, but maybe this was to indicated that the woman walked the street, or had a pimp, rather than that they worked in a Bordello with a Madam, or perhaps were the Mistress of a Rich man! I saw one that, I think - because the handwriting was so bad - was in the institution for "dice and cards." (Could it be that this was considered minor gambling?) Vagrancy, in other words homelessness, was punishable by being put into one of these places. Selling liquor became a crime during prohibition.
I ran a number of family names from Pennsylvania and was relieved not to discover that anyone I'm familiar with through my research was put into any of these places.
However, let's face the facts that some people have not and do not live privileged or charmed lives and that poverty or mental illness could condemn them to activities that might have meant their survival, that is if the conditions they found themselves in didn't hurt their health or even kill them in the mean time.
C 2016 Ancestry Worship Genealogy Blogspot All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
I do check to see what is new or updated on ANCESTRY.COM every few months, even if I'm not working on a genealogy research project in which I would use those databases. I feel that I should always be current with knowledge of resources, just in case.
I recently discovered one called PENNSYLVANIA PRISON, REFORMATORY, and WORKHOUSE RECORDS 1829-1971. To me the 1971 is MUCH TOO RECENT TO BE PUBLISHED as it might OUT PEOPLE WHO ARE ALIVE.
I'm concerned about the lack of discrimination and the use of these databases by both Ancestry and the State of Pennsylvania... but I'll have to check and see if such records have always been, like marriage and divorce records, open to the public in Pennsylvania. In California arrest records are, but I'm not aware of the public easily learning about sentences, and other details.
At this point I'm very concerned about the use of genealogy databases by criminals, in this era in which other countries are hacking our e-mails, web sites, even voters registrations in order to ID THEFT. Identity theft is not just about ruining a person's credit and financial reputation, but in ASSUMING IDENTITIES.
Criminals doing this targeted a senior citizen couple in my neighborhood, calling them with knowledge of their children's names and even a grandchild's name. They had their address and phone number - easy enough. They claimed that they were calling from Mexico, with a made up story about how their beloved grandson had gone there for a wedding, drank too much, acted crazy, and was in a Mexican prison. For a sum of $40,000 (their life savings) he could be bailed out of jail and returned to the United States and no one need to know. His young life would not need to be ruined with an arrest record. So much did the criminals know about this family that the seniors wired the money to Mexico, only to learn their grandson had never left the United States and was alive and well (and not at all criminal) at his college...
Never the less I did look at the database, which names people, the reason why they were arrested, the time or fine they were sentenced to, their prison job, and any amount of money they had earned while in the prison, reformatory (reform school - indicative of a juvenile delinquent), or workhouse (place a person works off their debts), from a historical point of view.
These places were frightening to the people who were put into them, and the offences are quite telling.
For instance, I came across men who were put into prison for sodomy and women who were called Com Prost (Common Prostitute). The Com Prost must have not been an Uncommon Prostitute, but maybe this was to indicated that the woman walked the street, or had a pimp, rather than that they worked in a Bordello with a Madam, or perhaps were the Mistress of a Rich man! I saw one that, I think - because the handwriting was so bad - was in the institution for "dice and cards." (Could it be that this was considered minor gambling?) Vagrancy, in other words homelessness, was punishable by being put into one of these places. Selling liquor became a crime during prohibition.
I ran a number of family names from Pennsylvania and was relieved not to discover that anyone I'm familiar with through my research was put into any of these places.
However, let's face the facts that some people have not and do not live privileged or charmed lives and that poverty or mental illness could condemn them to activities that might have meant their survival, that is if the conditions they found themselves in didn't hurt their health or even kill them in the mean time.
C 2016 Ancestry Worship Genealogy Blogspot All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
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